CHC to have a CFO by end of this month—Muña

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. now has its own legal counsel and is looking forward to having a financial chief by the end of this month, according to CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muña yesterday.

She said they are looking at three candidates for the chief financial officer position and are now doing background checks on them.

Muña said they are also looking at hiring a controller to assist the financial chief.

“Back then, when I was CFO for the hospital, we had a controller who helped and we did well together, that’s why we are looking to have a controller if were going to hire a new CFO,” she said.

She said their new legal counsel, Nancy Gottfried, has been onboard since Oct. 1.

According to Muña, Gottfried was also the hospital’s lawyer when the corporation was still called the Department of Public Health, during the time of former DPH secretaries James U. Hofschneider and Kevin Villagomez.

“It is really nice to have her back, with her understanding of legal healthcare matters and laws. She has worked with us in the past and we are fortunate to have her back,” she said.

Muña said that one of the reasons why they felt the need to hire a legal counsel is the fact that the attorney general is going to become an elective position starting January 2015.

Muña said they advertised the position for legal counsel for CHCC and they had a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the Attorney General, which recruited Gottfried.

The purpose of the MOU was to have the AG’s office execute what is required in Public Law 16-51. That law states that if the CHC CEO needs legal services, upon approval of the AG, the CEO may engage an in-house counsel.

Gottfried will be situated at the hospital.

“She has experience and her working with us is great. There are employees that are still around since she was here and that is good, because she has that relationship with the staff and management. It helps and she understands the difficult tasks of our managers,” Muña said.

Meanwhile, she said the group that Gov. Eloy S. Inos created to help resolve the hospital’s financial situation is a big help.

Inos told Saipan Tribune Friday that he had created a team from the Executive Branch to help with the hospital’s financial situation.

“Any help that we can get is great. With our problems now, we need every help we can get,” Muña said.