Senator aims to halt retirement trick

Senate Vice President Thomas P. Villagomez said yesterday he would seek to bar the government from hiring retirees in a rider provision to his proposed legislation removing the 30 percent retirement bonus for civil service employees.

He maintained the amendment will stop the flood of retired employees from seeking re-employment in the government in what he claimed a rampant practice to raise their pension.

“People retire only once but only in the CNMI you see people retiring more than once,” Villagomez told in an interview. “There are people here who have retired, but have gone back to work in the government so they can get a fat pension pay.”

The practice defeats the purpose of an existing law as most of these retirees are hired in the non-professional level and get higher salary than their previous government job.

When they retire again in three years, they will receive higher pension — a situation that strains local coffers, according to the senator.

“It’s unfair,” he explained. “They come in and get re-employed for higher salary so they can have higher pension.”

Villagomez at the same time said he would still press with the passage of the bill in line with the current austerity measures. The proposal is still pending in the Senate and its passage has been clouded by concerns over specter of massive resignation.

Two members of the House of Representatives earlier have warned against the move, saying it may spark long lines of government personnel resigning from civil service to avail of the retirement benefits before it is removed.

“I will make sure that we have a time frame to allow workers who are eligible to retire to do so within two years,” Villagomez said.

He also acknowledged the need for the NMI government to tighten its fiscal spending in view of the worsening economic crisis on the island that is anticipated to pull down revenue estimate by 13.4 percent less than earlier projections.

Finance officials had requested the legislature to repeal or suspend implementation of laws seen to impact on local coffers, including the 30 percent bonus given to government employees after 20 years of service.

As of October this year, some 256 civil service employees are eligible to retire and receive the lumpsum equivalent to 30 percent of their annual salary, according to the Retirement Fund office.

Villagomez said if these workers opt to retire, a lot of positions will be left vacant and contribute to the cost-cutting measures without laying off any of the government personnel.

About 75 percent of the entire $216.75 million budget for 1999 are appropriated for payroll of the nearly 5,000 government employees and business leaders and some lawmakers say huge savings will be realized if the bloated bureaucracy is cut down.

“The Tenorio administration has implemented austerity policy since January this year because of the economic crisis plaguing the Northern Marianas, its worst in years, and spawned by the financial turmoil in Asia, its main tourism market.