Retirees in the Northern Marianas will now receive an outstanding 25 percent of their pension payments after the government signed new laws.
The CNMI House of Representatives and the Senate hammered out bills in quick succession last week to allow the government to appropriate the quarter share of pension benefits withheld as part of the settlement agreement.
The Settlement Trust which administers the pension fund had been arguing that the 25 percent could not be paid because it was meant to be sourced from casino earnings which had dissipated.
But the new laws provide the missing money from the government's consolidated fund.
