3-month delay in CHC housing allowance

Many employees of the Commonwealth Health Center are dismayed and fear anew the instability of their employment after volunteering that their housing privilege has been delayed for three months now.

Saipan Tribune learned that the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. owes staff housing benefits for the months of April, May, and June.

In a statement yesterday from corporation CEO Esther L. Muna, she disclosed plans to issue checks for the three months’ worth of housing allowance.

“We’re paying all dues today. I don’t have the numbers now but they will be paid today,” Muña told Saipan Tribune.

She did not disclose where the source of the funding will come from.

A hospital employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was elated with the good news, but admitted that many are beginning to fear the stability of the corporation.

A registered nurse at CHC also confided that she was forced to adjust her monthly expenses to include her housing expense, on top of high utility bills.

“We’re hoping this situation will not continue. We don’t want to experience the same feeling we had in 2011,” the employee said yesterday, adding that the housing privilege accorded to off-island recruits is one of the biggest motivations why they continue to stay.

This housing benefit is accorded only to off-island hires, majority of whom are nurses recruited from the Philippines

CHCC gives a $600 monthly housing allowance for single employees recruited from off-island and $800 each month for those with families.

In fiscal year 2011, the allowance was delayed up to seven months. However, due to significant improvement in the hospital’s collections and revenues, the corporation was able to pay this obligation little by little until the total arrears were paid off.

In recent separate meetings of both the CHCC board and the Marianas Public Land Trust, it was learned that the corporation’s financial condition is in a “poor state” as a result of a significant decline in collections and revenues.

After the CHCC paid its $3-million loan with MPLT in April, it was disclosed that little is left in its bank account.

CHCC, which was approved a one-year extension of the line of credit, had asked last week to drawdown the funds, the bulk of which will go to payroll, vendors, and other critical needs of the hospital.

The housing allowance is among the benefits that may be cut or terminated if financial challenges continue at the hospital.

Corporation officials earlier disclosed that many employees have signed a new contract, which incorporates salary adjustments to cover a portion of their housing benefit. Among these employees are physicians who were recruited from outside the CNMI.

Saipan Tribune learned that CHCC has over a hundred employees receiving housing allowances.