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Fund: Judicial building loan arrears at $1.2M
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Posted on Dec 12 2011
By Moneth Deposa
Reporter
Reporter
The board of trustees of the NMI Retirement Fund directed on Friday its administrator, Richard Villagomez, to discuss and clarify once and for all issues about the judicial building loan with the Fitial administration before the board starts deliberating on the foreclosure option, which will be the board’s last resort to collect its investment.
Fund chair Sixto Igisomar made this clear during the board meeting Friday after learning that the government/judiciary has not been remitting payment pursuant to the loan agreement for 10 months now. Villagomez reported that the outstanding arrears from the agency is approximately $1.2 million as of Nov. 30 this year, or an expected monthly remittance of $120,000.
The administrator revealed that although a dedicated account was established for the said loan agreement, the Fund has no direct control of it and that it is under the Finance secretary. Igisomar said the board has tried to get control of the said account but failed because of legal issues involved. The chairman said the Fund has already written both Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the Attorney General’s Office on the status of the judicial building loan, but nothing has been done since then.
“We need to get clarification on this issue before the board can further discuss the foreclosure [of the property],” Igisomar told Villagomez during the meeting. The administrator said that the said loan is considered investment of the Fund because this accounts are recorded as loan receivables.
The foreclosure option came into the discussion when the board attorney, Carolyn Kern, said that in usual cases of delinquent loans, the board’s ultimate step to collect is through their collaterals or through foreclosure.
It was the Judicial Building Financing Act of 1994 that allowed the CNMI government to secure a loan from the NMI Retirement Fund in order to build the Guma Hustisia, which has a maturity date of Aug. 14, 2015.
The construction of the Judicial Complex began in 1995. It was completed in May 1998. The revenues generated by the Judiciary was the primary source of repayment of the loan.
