In a press briefing yesterday, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial said they had not decided whether to appeal the ruling.
Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos said that while they are reviewing the impact of the order, they will communicate with the Legislature regarding the government’s financial situation and how it will be affected by the ruling.
He said there will some changes in their proposed budget for personnel in FY 2010, which starts on Oct. 1
All government agencies, Inos said “are eating from the same pie,” so if they are going to make additional disbursements to other agencies, other agencies will be affected.
“There’s going to be an offset,” he said.
But Inos said they will make sure that essential services are not compromised.
Cutting jobs is something they would want to avoid, but if there are no new resources and no noticeable savings from other cost-cutting measures, then that option may be considered, Inos said.
The administration’s austerity measures have helped the government save money, but not at the level that could prevent s significant reduction of personnel costs — which will be their last option, Inos said.
Cutting working hours is another an option but it will not be imposed on civil service employees, he added.
Fitial said the Retirement Fund debt is more than 10 years old.
He recalled that when he first came into office, he tried to solve the problem.
He said he knew that the Retirement fund had been suffering and nobody was trying to save it.
A possible solution is a pension obligation bond which the governor compared to making a confession that will “erase all of your sins.”
There is a need to “get our hands” into more than “one pot,” Inos said, referring to funding sources.
He said securing outside sources will address a portion of the unfunded liabilities and not just the government’s contributions to the Retirement Fund.
A pension obligation bond, he said, has been used by many jurisdictions and should be explored by the CNMI.
Inos noted that the pension bond proposal, which still requires the approval of CNMI voters, is already pending in the Legislature.
“We hope they will deliberate and finally act on that,” he added.
Inos said the administration is still open to negotiations.
“It’s kind of unfortunate that we have to go this far — we could have addressed many of these issues if the Retirement Fund agreed that we move forward with a settlement,” he said.
