by Lannie Walker

Guam - Tough luck...that basically seems to be the message from the Department of Administration, which has not been paying Government of Guam employees' deductions. KUAM News has received reports of GovGuam employees receiving notices from lenders that they are two months behind. Although their check stubs show the deductions were paid, the money was actually never transferred.

Acting department of administration director Joey Manisbusan said, "It is the employee who is ultimately responsible for making sure those payments are made in a timely manner; yes, the deduction is a tool they have available to them, and as we have seen we ran into a case where we were not able to make it on time."

Not being able to make it on time has put thousands of public sector staffers in jeopardy of not meeting the terms of their loans-putting their credit rating at risk. DOA payroll supervisor Betty Tayama says about 95% of the 3,500 line agency employees opt to have deductions taken out of their paychecks, a total cost of about $1.8 million for each pay period.

Manibusan couldn't provide when payments will be made other than they are concentrating on cash collections.