“We’re not going to support the proposal to place the Retirement Fund under a federal receiver,” said CRA Chairman Juan M. Sablan.
He said their group has more than 300 members, and they do not think that a receiver would be in the best interest of the Retirement Fund.
Attorney Bruce Jorgensen filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the NMI against Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and other Retirement Fund officials, urging the federal court to place the pension agency under federal receivership.
Jorgensen said all the members of the Retirement Fund’s board of trustees are political appointees who may be influenced by the administration’s stand on issues concerning the agency.
The Fund won by default in the local Superior Court its claim that the CNMI government owed it more than $231 million in unpaid contributions as of April 2009.
The government is now compelled to pay the Fund. But it wants to settle the debt on its own terms because of its cash-strapped condition.
The CRA is a newly established retirement group which aims to get a seat on the Retirement Fund board.
But it must have 1,000 members to be recognized as an independent retirees group in the CNMI.
