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‘Fund is no place for political consultants’
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Posted on Feb 01 2012
Former lieutenant governor and speaker Diego Benavente, now a Commonwealth Retirees Association director, said yesterday that the NMI Retirement Fund should not be a place for “political consultants” like former speaker Heinz Hofschneider, whom the Fund wants to hire as a consultant for $70,000 a year.
“First of all, I don’t know who the governor is trying to kid when he said he had no idea that the Fund board was considering hiring Heinz,” Benavente told Saipan Tribune.
Benavente said he welcomed Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s decision to tap former governor Juan N. Babauta to become chief executive officer of the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. because Babauta, he said, has the qualifications and background to run CHC.
He said that’s not the case with Hofschneider, who is about to be awarded a sole-source contract by the Fund. He said Hofschneider, whom he thinks has a medical/health education background, could be more qualified to work at CHC rather than the Fund.
“The Fund board chair’s justification was that Heinz was passionate about helping the Fund. That is hard to believe. I realize the Legislature or the administration does not have the money to hire Heinz, but we all thought the Retirement Fund also does not have money. The Fund could use the $70,000 to help pay the benefits of retirees,” said Benavente.
The CRA director hopes that the Fund board will reconsider its decision to hire Hofschneider. Benavente was Babauta’s lieutenant governor.
During the 2009 elections, Hofschneider as a Republican standard bearer, won the initial popular vote against Covenant Party’s Fitial. But Hofschneider failed to gain a majority, resulting in a runoff against the incumbent, Fitial, who won by 370 votes and was re-elected. Fitial went back to the Republican Party in 2011 and became its president again.
