Department of Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson disclosed yesterday that they are now finalizing the timeline for the release of the retirees\u2019 withheld 25-percent pension. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have a date yet, but it\u2019s our goal to make it as fast as possible,\u201d said Larson in an interview. \u201cWe should have a timeline very shortly that we will be releasing to the media.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the first batch of checks would most likely be for the restoration of the retirees\u2019 deferred 25-percent pension.<\/p>\n
This comes soon after the Lottery Commission gave Best Sunshine International Ltd. a conditional license to build an integrated casino resort on Saipan. Once Best Sunshine is officially awarded the license, that will trigger the release of the $30 million license fee that Best Sunshine deposited in a bank on escrow. That money would be used to pay the retirees\u2019 deferred 25-percent pension since last year, as well as the accrued interest on withdrawn Defined Benefit plan contributions.<\/p>\n
Larson said they are having discussions with the Retirement Fund to see who would be able to release the money faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should have it soon in the next couple of days or we have a tentative date. But we want it as fast as possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Larson acknowledged that the retirees have been waiting a long time and that the Inos administration is aware of the importance in restoring their money immediately.<\/p>\n
On the casino project, Larson said the next step is primarily the issuance of a conditional license, which is being worked out now.<\/p>\n
Larson said the next step is the implementation of Best Sunshine\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n
The secretary said that after the license is awarded then the Casino Gaming Commission will take over.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs far as oversight of the casino itself and the implementation of the plan from that point we completed our work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Larson said they\u2019re very grateful to both bidding companies: Best Sunshine International Ltd. and Marianas Stars Entertainment Inc.<\/p>\n
Larson said the Lottery Commission, of which she is a member, did its part in making sure that all applications were reviewed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hired consultants to make sure that everything was in place,\u201d she said. \u201cWe feel very confident that we made the right choice.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the conditional license given to Best Sunshine, Larson said they still have some administrative matters to attend to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be continuing our meetings, but it won\u2019t be as frequent [compared to] what\u2019s been happening over the last couple of months,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The secretary pointed out that they had a very tight timeline with the casino law so they had to expedite their work on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo now that the major work has been done, we can go back to our normal operations,\u201d Larson added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Department of Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson disclosed yesterday that they are now finalizing the timeline…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,4],"tags":[988,256,928,134],"class_list":["post-42345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","category-local-news","tag-best-sunshine","tag-casino","tag-lottery-commission","tag-retirement-fund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}