On June 19, 2009, my application to withdraw cash bond was received and stamped by Division of Immigration. On June 30, 2009, it was certified and verified by Division of Immigration to be valid. A copy of this document was submitted and stamped as received by the Department of Finance on July 9, 2009.
On Aug. 4, 2009, I went to the CNMI Treasury on Capital Hill to inquire if my check for this withdrawal was ready for pick up. The lady there told me that it was not in their system yet and I was told to check with the Finance Department. So I went to Finance office and spoke with one of its staff members. She asked me to wait for a while to see her supervisor. The lady came back to me and said that her supervisor stepped out. The same lady later on advised me to follow up on Aug. 7, 2009. She told me to call first before I go to their office because of their location and gas was expensive. (Wow! Concerned!) I took her advice. On Aug. 7, 2009, I started calling their office from time to time between 8:30 a.m. and 12 noon and the phone was either busy or it just kept on ringing. After several attempts, at last, I was able to speak with someone. I asked for the supervisor but I was told that the supervisor was busy on the other line. I tried again and again and the same pattern happened. It was either the phone line was busy or just kept on ringing or when I was able to speak with someone, the supervisor was either on the other line, away from her desk or stepped out of the office. Because of these excuses, that afternoon, I went up to their office just to find out that the supervisor stepped out of the office, AGAIN. I insisted to one of the employee there to check my application. I was then told that it was not uploaded in their system yet and that there might be a problem. I asked her what could be the problem and she said that she didn’t know because only the supervisor knew about it. For goodness sake, how could the problem be known if the only person who knew if there was a problem was always stepping out of her office?
In the morning of Aug. 10, 2009, I tried calling them again and I went through the same phone ordeal again. In the afternoon, I decided to personally see the supervisor again. At exactly 2:45 p.m. (please take note of the time), the lady there told me that her supervisor was TAKING HER LUNCH. So I asked her “Is this her usual lunch break?” And she said yes! Wow that is great! Taking a late lunch to finish all the work.
The following day, Aug. 11, 2009, I tried several times again calling their office. Same old story — either the phone was busy or it kept on ringing or the supervisor was away from her desk or she stepped out of the office.
I believe that there is NO problem with my application for withdrawal of cash bond. It was already verified and certified by the Division of Immigration. Granted that they have to check CHC first for any unpaid bills for my son, how hard could it be for them to call CHC to verify? It is not all that hard to type in my son’s name to check in the CHC system, is it? Anyway, I am 101 percent sure that my son does not have pending bills with CHC.
How much longer would it take? Another month? How many more stepping out of the office?
I paid for the cash bond in June 1998 — more than 11 years now. I do not see any problem. Except that maybe they cannot release the cash bond anymore because the pictures on the dollar bills have faded already.
Why not just tell me honestly that either: “We do not have cash for your refund right now”; OR, “Sorry, the supervisor is really very busy on the phone and stepping out of the office that she could not find time to do her job.”
MALOU H. BERUECO
As Gono, Saipan
