NMIRF asked to recover $127K from ex-CPA officials

The Public Auditor is pressing for the recovery of close to $127,000 worth of improper retirement payments made to two former officials of the Commonwealth Ports Authority who allegedly inflate their leave and compensatory time credits to receive higher pension.

OPA went even further by suggesting that the matter be referred to the Attorney General’s Office should the NMI Retirement Fund encounter problems in the recovery of the $126,730.06 in retirement benefits improperly paid to the two former CPA officials.

Public Auditor Leo LaMotte asked the Fund to discontinue payments to former CPA Security Chief Joseph A. Reyes, after investigations proved that he is not qualified to receive early retirement benefits.

The public auditor urged the Retirement Fund to properly calculate and adjust the pension benefits of all other members by disregarding overtime and compensatory time hours that were considered as additional credited service.

Mr. LaMotte also called on the Fund to adjust the pension benefits payable to former CPA Executive Director Carlos A. Shoda which was actually $5,114 higher than what other government officials, who receive the same salary, would normally get.

Based on the CPA personnel manual, Mr. Shoda was paid $12, 114 in compensation benefits. OPA also noted that the excess annual leave credits granted to Mr. Shoda increased his average annual salary and pension benefits by at least $222 monthly or $2,674 annually.

OPA asked Ports Authority Board Chairman Roman S. Palacios to officially request the Fund to adjust Mr. Shoda’s retirement pension based on the average annual salary and creditable years of service.

According to the OPA, the previous CPA administration allowed the conversion of the two officials’ unused compensatory time hours to sick leave for use as additional years of credited service in the computation of their retirement allotment.

The OPA report also said Mr. Reyes claimed excessive compensatory time of 1,800 hours to qualify for early retirement benefits which allowed him to receive the 30 percent early retirement bonus of $13,973.76, paid out of CPA funds.

This also paved the way for Mr. Reyes to receive monthly pension payments of $2,473.36 from the NMI Retirement Fund beginning January 1997.

The OPA report added that the previous CPA administration allowed its officials to earn annual leave of about 14 hours per pay period or 360 hours in a year which is excessive of the law-mandated eight-hour leave per pay period or 208 hours granted each year to officials and employees of the CNMI government.

The personnel regulations adopted by the ports authority were not in accordance with that of the Commonwealth-wide policies, resulting in irregularities in the granting of compensatory time to Mr. Shoda and Mr. Reyes.