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Gov’t scraps bonus pay for FY 2000
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Posted on Apr 05 1999
Retirees from the government service are in for another long wait for their 30 percent retirement bonus after the administration scrapped plans to earmark $2.2 million in new funds to pay out the benefits.
In a letter to the Legislature seeking approval of the Fiscal 2000 appropriation package, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio explained that funding for the bonus was excluded from the $206 million budget proposal, along with several other requests, because of CNMI’s tight fiscal condition.
Because of the anticipated decline in revenues to be collected for the next fiscal year, Tenorio lowered 2 percent from $210 million the annual spending plan and suspended various independent programs to allow him realign funds for critical government service.
The Tenorio administration has pressed the Legislature to suspend a package of laws it deemed would deplete the local coffers, including payment of the cash bonus equivalent to 30 percent of an employee’s yearly salary at the end of government service.
But such plan has drew criticisms from government retirees who have yet to receive the benefits for the last two years.
The local government spends some $2 million to $3 million annually for the cash bonus of retirees since the law granting the benefit was implemented in 1993.
A bill putting in motion the administration’s request has been approved in the House of Representatives seeking to eliminate the bonus after December 15, 1999.
However, legislators assure recent retirees that they will receive the cash benefit once local revenue collection improve in the next few years. The proposed legislation did not specify when the bonus will be disbursed since the availability of funds hinges on how soon the island economy can recover from its worst crisis.
Some members of the Legislature are pushing for the inclusion of legal mechanism that will ensure that retirees are paid, as well as compel the government to set aside available funds in any given fiscal year specifically for this purpose.
At least 110 government workers have been identified to be eligible for retirement as of November last year.
