Saipan Tribune

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

CUC employees' payroll delayed

Employees of the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. were disappointed after yet again experiencing a payless payday last Friday, not because of cash flow problems but due to a banking glitch.

Acting CUC executive director Alan Fletcher and chief financial officer Charles Warren confirmed yesterday the delayed payroll since Friday, saying the problem was not caused by cash-flow issues at the agency but due to issues beyond their control.

“We received notification from Bank of Guam just after 4:30pm on Friday that they encountered a problem processing our ACH [automated clearing house] transfer for payroll,” said Fletcher, adding that CUC retransmitted the data late Friday night, which should have resolved the issue on Saturday.

Unfortunately, he said, this meant that employees with accounts at Bank of Guam would see their wages in their accounts Monday afternoon instead of Friday night. Those employees banking elsewhere, however, will most likely not see their pay posted until late Monday night or Tuesday.

“This is a huge inconvenience for our employees and we sincerely apologize. We are not sure what occurred as the payroll was transmitted using the same protocols we have successfully used for years. While we do not believe the error was in CUC’s system, we have and will be double checking our systems and procedures and make any needed corrections,” explained Fletcher.

CUC has a total of 345 employees with net pay of about $260,000 every two weeks.

Early last year, CUC employees also experienced a payless payday due mainly to cash flow problems. “That was not the case in this event as payroll was transferred on schedule Friday,” said Fletcher.

In his email memorandum to CUC department heads, Warren indicated the same concern on payroll.

“We just received notification from Bank of Guam that they encountered a problem processing our ACH transfer for payroll. This is the file that includes the employee bank account and net pay information. The issue should be resolved tomorrow. What this means is that everyone with a Bank of Guam account should see their pay in their account Monday afternoon. Everyone else most likely will not see their pay until Tuesday morning. Please be sure to notify your staff. Sorry for the inconvenience,” stated Warren in his email to staff Friday.

CUC is still under a state of emergency and is working to address the requirements of two stipulated orders.