This, however, contradicts the Retirement Fund’s records.
Teresa Kim, special legal counsel for Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos, said Retirement Fund Administrator Mark Aguon did not say that the majority are new hires.
“Don’t misreport or lie,” she told this reporter in an e-mail. “Mark Aguon did not say only over 500 are transferees. The majority are transferees from the old DB plan. As for the so-called ‘new’ ones, they are either replacements for those who resigned/retired/or separated for six months then returned.”
However, no documents detailing the exact breakdown of the composition of the membership on the DB plan was provided.
In a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon, Aguon told the Variety there were 1,700 members in the DC plan.
Of the figure, more than 500 were transferees from the DB plan which is riddled with financial problems.
“We have over 1,700 members now. More than 500 transferred from the DB plan and the rest are new employees since 2007,” he said.
The Defined Contribution Retirement Plan Act of 2006 that took effect in 2007 requires that all new hires automatically become vested in the DC plan instead of the old pension plan.
The DC plan was mainly created to reduce the cash-strapped government’s mounting liabilities to DB members whose benefits were increased over the years despite the lack of funding sources.
