UNPAID CONTRIBUTION STANDS AT $21M Gov’t. must pay more to pare down dues to NMIRF

Despite payment of an average of $1.6 million each month to the Retirement Fund to settle its burgeoning debt, the government has yet to diminish the $21 million it owed the agency since last year.

Acting Retirement Fund Administrator Fred Camacho said the payment is not enough to reduce the unpaid contributions by the government as the monthly check represents current obligations.

“They need to pay us a little more if they want to pare down the $21 million debt,” he said.

But Mike Sablan, special advisor for finance and budget, stressed the administration is still reviewing its records whether the government actually has owed the Retirement Fund that much money since January. 1998.

“Our legal counsel is researching whether that amount is a true liability or not, but we have committed to make amends between now until the end of September to assist the Retirement Fund,” Sablan said in a separate interview.

Camacho also pointed out that the administration has assured them payment of $1.6 million to $1.7 million every month to at least help them meet its obligations to retirees.

But the outstanding balance of $21 million in question still remains at the same level despite this move. “It has not gone down although the government has been paying now its monthly contributions,” the acting administrator added.

The unpaid contributions for the nearly 5,000 government employees have been a thorny issue for the last three months after the Retirement Fund has warned that failure to settle the debt could affect their ability to provide pension pay to some 1,200 retirees.

Several meetings were conducted to resolve the issue, and Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio had agreed to make a monthly payment once its cash flow improves.

They have so far been religiously meeting their earlier commitment which has enabled the Retirement Fund to forego initial plan to liquidate some of its stock investments in efforts to assure payment of the pension.

“We still owe them but the question is to the amount of the liability,” Sablan explained, “fortunately since the receipt of the Hillblom tax money, that allowed us some funds to pay to the Retirement Fund and other obligations that we have.”

The Retirement Fund has relied largely from government contributions to raise more than $2.3 million each month to meet its obligations — until lately when the administration has been behind in the payment due to the ongoing financial crisis besetting the Commonwealth.

The government has to come up with approximately $850,000 in contribution money every month to pay the Retirement Fund against employees share of some $280,000.