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Five independent agencies owe Fund $34.8M
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Posted on Jul 11 2011
At least five autonomous agencies have incurred $34.8 million in unpaid contributions to the pension program, according to NMI Retirement Fund deputy administrator Esther Ada in her report to the board of trustees Friday.
The amount is as of April 30 this year and is expected to increase in coming months.
Ada disclosed that the Public School System has the highest unpaid obligation, incurring $22.9 million in delinquent payments to the Fund through April.
Northern Marianas College comes next with $6.2 million in unpaid obligations, while the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has so far incurred $3.9 million.
Fund officials earlier disclosed that the debt of these three agencies may be absorbed by the central government, if an agreement between concerned parties is reached. Monies used to pay for these obligations are sourced from the government’s general fund.
Also delinquent in its contribution payment is the Marianas Visitors Authority, with $741,000, and the Tinian Municipal Treasury, the amount of which was not disclosed in Friday’s meeting.
The CNMI government’s deficient contributions, meantime, is at $177.3 million just for the current fiscal year, according to Ada.
Saipan Tribune learned that autonomous agencies incurred large receivables because of the changes in the laws pertaining to the employer’s contribution rate from 36 percent to 11 percent.
It was learned Friday that the Fund’s investment portfolio, based on preliminary records, is valued at only $311 million as of June 30, 2011. This is a significant drop from April’s $329 million but is a slight improvement over the $305 million posted in May. The decline was attributed to the volatile market and the continuous drawdown from the investment fund.
