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Fund’s investments at $231.2M as of April 15
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Posted on May 04 2012
By Clarissa V. David
Reporter
Reporter
The NMI Retirement Fund’s investment portfolio had a market value of $231.2 million as of April 15, based on an unaudited financial report dated April 26. This is a 6-percent drop to the $246.37 million posted in March 31.
“The continuous decline in the carrying value of investment was attributed mostly to the total amount withdrawn from the investment to cover shortfalls in pension payouts,” acting comptroller Pablito J. Amog said in his report to the board.
The Fund’s operating cash balance was at $3.55 million as of March 31. Of this amount, $1.5 million is a reserved fund for operation while $184,133 is a reserved fund for the payment of annual retirees’ bonus.
On a positive note, total contributions revenue for March increased to $2.685 million, in contrast to February’s collection of $1.202 million.
“The remarkable improvement in contribution revenue collection for March 2012 was due to the continuous remittances of employer contributions by the CNMI government and autonomous agencies,” the report stated, also noting an improvement in the central government’s remittance of other obligations, including appropriation for hotel/container tax.
Unpaid employer contributions, however, total $227.926 million as of March 31. Of this amount, $182.724 million is owed by the government while $45.652 million is owed by autonomous agencies.
“These agencies incurred this additional liability for not implementing the actuarially determined rate of 60.8686 percent in the remittance of their employer contribution,” according to the report.
Among autonomous agencies, the Public School System owes the largest amount, estimated at $28,680,538 as of March 31. The report also noted that PSS, which pays a 30-percent rate, has not remitted its employee and employer contribution for 11 pay periods in fiscal year 2012.
A total of $2,275,516 was also refunded to departing government employees as of March 31, and this amount equates to 40 percent of the total budgeted amount for fiscal year 2012, which is $5.7 million.
The pension agency also realized savings at 8 percent, which equates to $566,000 as total expenditure for March was at $6.797 million as against its budget of $7.37 million.
