|
Money from GTA sale could fund retirement payments for GMH, DOE
|
by Ken Wetmore, KUAM News
Sunday, April 10, 2005
|
KUAM Video requires Flash 8.
download it Here.
|
|
You've worked hard all your life. Every payday when you look at your check stub it shows a percentage of your hard earned income is being deposited into your retirement kitty. You look forward to retiring and enjoying the fruits of your labor, but you also know that should you die before you retire, your retirement funds will go to help support your spouse and children.
If you are a Guam Memorial Hospital employee or a Department of Education staffer eligible to retire but unable to do so because your agency owes the Retirement Fund millions, your agency has but two words for you if your family can't make it without your income.
Don't die.
It seems every elected official has an idea on how to spend the proceeds of the sale of the now-privatized Guam Telephone Authority. "I know there's been a couple of bills - I know the Governor wants to use it for a hospital, another one a couple of the senators have introduced legislation to give it to DOE," said Democrat senator B.J. Cruz. He his own plan on how to spend the estimated $30-$35 million that would be left after a federal loan is paid off. The freshman senator says he's decided paying off the Government of Guam Retirement Fund what it is owed by DOE and GMH.
The senator says he came to that conclusion after hearing that employees eligible for retirement have passed while still working, and that their spouses and children have not only lost someone they love but their income as well since the GovGuam Retirement Fund will not pay out annuities because of the freeze on the two agencies.
Retirement Fund executive director Wilfred Aflague confirmed Senator Cruz's story, telling KUAM News, "It is particularly disheartening to know those situations exist out there but unfortunately the board can not distinguish one type of annuity over another. They can't say, 'Oh we won't allow regular retirement but we will allow this because the board has to be unified in its stance,' and so, yes, those unfortunate circumstances do happen and they are in existence right now."
Aflague didn't know exactly how many cases there are, but said after speaking with DOE superintendent Juan Flores there could be at least three such examples. Senator Cruz says that's reason enough for him why the Legislature should prioritize the GTA sale money to pay off GMH's and DOE's debt to the Retirement Fund. "It's a crime that we've taken it from these people but its compounded now by the fact that we have widows and their children not being able to have any kind of income because of the fact that we didn't pay into the Retirement Fund," said the senator.
In the meantime Republican senator Mike Cruz and Speaker Mark Forbes co-introduced two bills that also aim to relieve the situation. Bill 117 would force GMH and DOE to pay employees who want to retire out of their normal operating funds what they should be receiving from their agencies. Bill 118 is measure that the Retirement Fund has already agreed to where the interest owed to the Retirement Fund from the two agencies is paid-up, and then the government pledges to use the proceeds of a bond that is currently held up in the courts to pay off the principle.
So far, neither bill has had a hearing.
|