Fernando Camacho - Thursday, April 19, 2012 at 04:47 PMWhy not reduce or cap the annual retirement benefit at $50,000 as one of the recommendations of Judge Govendo? This is the most generous retirement pension fund in the world considering our very limited resources. I believe we all can make a little sacrifice for a life-long survivability.

Glen Hunter - Wednesday, April 25, 2012 at 02:42 PMMy comments on restructuring as requested at ( http://www.nmiretirement.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=194&Itemid=118 )

To NMIRF:

in regards to the documents there is no indication contained within the six slides or the copy in the "Fiscal Condition" document that there will be any effort at all or potential success in securing any amount from the CNMI Government for the outstanding judgement of over $325 million dollars. the only focus of these "solutions" from the you (NMIRF officials and attorneys) is to cut benefits. the "perfect solution" that you have showcased is slide 6 that cuts benefits by 58% and places the full burden of mistakes made by the Government on the retirees. 

here is my solution. collect what is due to the retirees from the CNMI Government. you may not be able to collect the full $350 million today but you ca sure as heck begin to pay it down. as with any huge debt, every penny matters and all possible action to pay any amount should be made as quickly as possible. had even a few of the solution below been made 3 years ago we could have seen an influx of at least $150 million or more. 

a few sources (there are many more) of funds: 
- reduce constitutionally protected salaries of elected officials and other government workers (already violating the constitution by moving to impair benefits)
- halt all legislative and executive branch discretionary funding and immediately remit those amounts to the fund (in the millions every year). the legislature can use the LB as should be the case.

- sell off all vehicles
- allocate 100% of all future new and renewed public leases to the Fund
- sell off the abandoned government owed homes on capital hill to NMDs or long term lease to others and transfer all money to the FUND

- sell off the government owned homes in Garapan (behind GES) or lease to non-NMD and allocate all money to the fund
- cancel out all travel accounts in every department and allocate those money to the Fund
- redirect all government funds allocated to festivals and tournaments (baseball, july 4th, fishing, etc) to the Fund

- ramp up enforcement at Dept of Rev, DPS and at customs. if need be farm it out on consignment to a certified group. all new revenues realized by these efforts to go to the fund.
- cancel all unneeded contracts with outside consultants (any that can be justified need to be done so publicly and determination be made by the courts). this includes all outside legal counsel in all divisions of government especially the NMIRF. they have paid millions over the past few years to outside counsel.

- Act on the findings of recent desk audits of the DPS and DCCA. conduct new ones and act on them for all other divisions of government. 
- transfer various other developed yet unused public properties over to the fund to sell or lease out such as the Marianas House in DC. CHC was transferred a $15 million plot of land overnight upon request just a month ago. it is possible and should be done. 

this list is very much longer. over the past 3 years the you (the NMIRF) has been sitting in court with the Government's AGs "talking" about collecting on the judgement. you are an arm of this government i believe that has affected and negatively influenced your desire to push to collect on that judgement. to date, the administration has paid nothing towards the judgement. they still continue, even after the judgement to skip payments and pay far below the actuarial rate for active DBP members. 

the response the pubic has been getting from both the Administration and you (the NMIRF) has constantly been, "The Government has no money."

yet as you both have said this, we have watched this government and the fund take on new hires, sign new lucrative contracts, recently move to increase discretionary accounts, travel often, hire new consultants, engage in with new legal counsel, purchase new assets, install judges that were not extremely vital, fund festivals, ball games, fishing tournaments and the like. 

the problem isn't that with the lack of funds it is with PRIORITIZATION and recognition of the dire need to direct the available funds. rather than paying mandated contributions, the government halted these payments in order to use those monies for political hires, discretionary spending, travel and other non-needed items such as those listed above.

retirees should not accept the "we have no money" answer coming from the NMIRF and the Administration. they should call out to the courts and the public and demand that this government be turned upside down like you would an old purse and shake it till the coins and bills come falling out along with all the debris and trash. all that will remain is a fully functional purse (government). we can then claim the millions in coins and bills and sweep the trash into the garbage bin!

from:Glen Hunter