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Fund: $900K payment is not enough
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Posted on Feb 06 2006
The Department of Finance remitted $900,000 to the NMI Retirement Fund last week but this amount is still short of the needed funds, said Fund administrator Karl T. Reyes.
He said the payment was for the Jan. 31 pension obligation.
“We received [$900,000] but they [central government] are still not current,” said Reyes.
He said the Fund has to release $2.3 million in pension obligations per pay period, including an additional $158,333 for 181 new retirees this year.
The Fund almost failed to pay off its pension obligations during the last pay period in December due to delayed remittance from government offices.
As of early January, the Fund said the government had been four pay periods behind in employer contributions, amounting to over $3 million.
The government is now required to pay its contribution at 36.7 percent, up from the 24 percent in the previous fiscal year. The new rate, however, has not been followed for a lack of funding.
The government is currently allowed a budget of $213 million under the continuing resolution but the new administration had revised and reduced this to $198 million, citing lack of government resources.
Meantime, the overall debt of the government with the Fund in terms of contributions now amounts to some $85 million. This reflects the central government’s unpaid employer contributions from December 2001 to the present.
