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Pact eyed to settle gov’t contributions
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Posted on Apr 13 2001
A firm agreement that will pave the way for the prompt payment of government contributions should be set up immediately to prevent a possible inflation of remiss accounts.
NMI Retirement Fund earlier junked recommendations made by the Office of the Public Auditor to consider charging interest on overdue accounts receivable.
According to Fund officials, there is an understanding between the Department of Finance and the NMIRF that payments will be made every two weeks for the most delinquent pay period contributions.
But NMIRF disclosed plans to change the present arrangement with the finance department to prevent greater possibility of bigger contribution payments.
Further, by changing the existing agreement, the receivable balance will be stabilized, thereby blocking possible inflation. “This is because the current pay period contributions are greater than the pay period most in arrears,” said the Fund in a letter to OPA.
In addition, NMIRF explained that assessing interest as recommended by OPA, would not be beneficial or will ever aid in speeding up collections of the delinquency.
Public Auditor Mike Sablan said additional actions are needed to be taken on this case, adding that the two departments should firm up a final agreement on how payments will be made.
He said the final agreement on how payments will be made on the receivable from the CNMI government and the target date of implementation should be forwarded to the public auditor’s office.
The Finance department earlier agreed to pay every two weeks the most delinquent pay period contributions but the Fund moved to change the arrangement which reflects payment of contributions for the most current pay period. (EGA)
