The Retirement Fund served to SHEFA and mayor’s office a subpoena duces tecum in connection with the administrative cases of William Torres of Marianas Pacific Network and Jesusa B. Boyer of Dris Student Services.
During the board meeting yesterday, SHEFA administrator Henry Hofschneider said the Retirement Fund requested some documents relevant to the transaction of SHEFA’s former consultants.
These include procurement records relating to the negotiation, execution, maintenance, payment and renewal of all contracts with Torres or Marianas Pacific Network and Dirs or Dris Student Services.
A hearing has been set for April 15 and the custodian of the SHEFA records must appear before the hearing officer.
Hofschneider said the Office of the Public Auditor after an audit in April 2008 instructed the Retirement Fund to determine whether Torres and Dris were performing administrative functions in running and managing the SHEFA office.
There were concerns that the two consultants, who are retirees, were double-dipping.
“OPA raised the issue of double-dipping, which is prohibited by retirement law,” Hofschneider told the SHEFA board.
In the subpoena a duces tecum, Retirement Fund administrative hearing officer Edward Manibusan stated that the present action is an appeal of the Fund administrator’s adverse decision to recoup monies “erroneously overpaid to Torres during periods in which he was unlawfully employed by the government while collecting retirement benefits.”
According to Manibusan, “The specific records requested will aid to prove or disprove the Fund’s belief that Torres’s sole or primary client was SHEFA during the periods of time in question and that while couched under the guise of an ‘independent contract’ he really did not maintain a distinct business but rather was a servant of the government.”
