Governor Praises Bank of North Dakota Employee Bonus Program

(Photo by Kyle Martin/For the North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – State officials have approved new staff performance bonuses to improve retention at the Bank of North Dakota, with the first installment totaling about $772,000.

The North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the state-owned bank, unanimously approved the payout during its Feb. 24 meeting. Employee bonuses have been under the microscope after several bonuses exceeding $100,000 were awarded to employees of another state agency earlier this year.

“As the chair of two committees that have two different bonus plans, I like this one a lot better,” Gov. Kelly Armstrong said during a meeting of the Industrial Commission last week. “The benefits to this is we are competing with private sector, and it’s a way to keep base salaries in line.”

Armstrong also chairs the State Investment Board, responsible for investing state funds like the Legacy Fund, which approved $1.3 million in bonuses for 12 employees of the Retirement and Investment Office in January. Armstrong voted in favor of that bonus pay, despite pushback from some lawmakers who asked the attorney general to issue an opinion on some legal questions.