Retirement Fund to lose administrator this month

Villagomez admitted that he does not expect his contract to be renewed.

“The people working at the Fund are some of the hardest working, talented, and professional. I enjoy working with all of them. I don’t expect my contract to be renewed but will continue to do what we believe is in the best interest of the Fund and its members through the last day of my contract on July 31, 2012,” Villagomez told Saipan Tribune.

Villagomez was appointed as the agency’s administrator following the departure in May 2010 of Mark A. Aguon. Prior to becoming Fund administrator, Villagomez was its loan manager and analyst.

The Fund has been placed on emergency status by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial through an executive order that aims to transfer its operation and management to the Department of Finance. However, the actual transfer will not happen until a formal decision on the Fund’s bankruptcy petition is issued.

Sources say that there are two ways to fill the administrator position: through the appointment of the governor who is currently off-island, or through the bankruptcy court, which decides and takes action on the Fund issues based on Fund requests and petitions.

The Executive Branch has yet to name an appointee for the position and Finance Secretary Larissa Larson declined to comment on Villagomez’s contract.

“I would like to decline comment on anything related to Mr. Richard Villagomez’s contract as it is a personnel matter,” Larson told Saipan Tribune.

In a recent correspondence to the Legislature, Villagomez expressed fears and doubts about the Executive Branch’s intention to take over the pension agency and suggested ways on how the Fund’s assets can be protected.

The continuing depletion of the pension program’s assets was the prime reason for the bankruptcy petition filed by the agency’s board in early April. Without infusion of new monies to its portfolio, its lifespan was projected to last less than two years.

Villagomez said the Fund’s total assets is estimated at approximately $228 million.

The central government, based on a court judgment in 2009, owes the Fund over $320 million in unpaid employer contributions.

Villagomez should stay

Commonwealth Retirees Association chair Larry Cabrera said yesterday that Villagomez should stay for the best interest of the program.

He believes that Villagomez’s contract can be acted on by the remaining members of the Fund board or he could be asked to continue to stay.

For Cabrera, the executive order Fitial issued declaring a state of emergency at the Fund and transferring it under the Finance Department is not yet in existence. He said the executive order will only take effect if the Legislature supports it and once the bankruptcy case is formally dismissed.

Until these things happen, the Fund board remains the sole authority to decide on Villagomez’s contract, Cabrera said.

Once the executive order takes effect, “that’s the only time the Executive Branch and Finance secretary can come in and decide.”