Health corp. may scrap housing perks

Commonwealth health corporation board chair Joaquin Torres and chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta said housing perks currently being provided to hospital workers who were hired from off-island may soon be scrapped because of the health organization’s shaky financial condition.

As of Friday, Saipan Tribune learned that off-island hires have yet to receive their housing checks for October and November which are usually released every first week of each month.

Saipan Tribune learned that public health provides $800 monthly housing allowance to employees who were hired from outside the Commonwealth with dependants, while $600 is provided each month for single employees. There are over 200 personnel who are presently receiving this housing allowance, mostly nurses.

“That’s a possibility . because we have to live within our means. The good old days are no longer there. Even government benefits have been scaled back and I don’t believe that anybody else like the hospital workers should be getting housing allowance,” Torres told Saipan Tribune.

The chairman revealed that the corporation is looking at a $25-million operational budget for this fiscal year including the $5 million seed money appropriated by the Legislature. This amount, he added, is not even enough to sustain the operations and expenditures of the hospital but he vowed to adhere to the budget plan.

Torres cited the delayed payroll in the government as a clear example that all agencies and departments are suffering the same challenges. “Everybody is on the same boat. Government is missing payroll, too,” added the chairman.

Payroll for corporation employees, which are estimated at about 600, is still being sourced from the general fund, until a financial system is developed and enough revenues are generated by the corporation.

Torres said this is also the reason behind the delayed issuance of housing benefits.

Babauta concurred with Torres’ statement, adding that if the corporation finds that it has no capability to pay such benefits, he will recommend its scrapping.

“If we get to the point where we cannot provide anymore payment for this kind of benefit that they been having for a long time, we cannot continue it. Times are different and times are really tough now. We cannot continue to provide that kind of commitment as much as we would like to,” said Babauta, adding that the corporation will re-assess the entire organization including workers’ benefits. “We’re going to set the level of financial commitment on what we can afford and what we cannot afford,” he added.

Hospital workers interviewed by Saipan Tribune and who requested anonymity were disappointed upon hearing this possible action from the new corporation. However, they are hopeful that the board will reconsider any plan of scaling back housing perks.

It can be recalled that a number of hospital employees didn’t receive housing perks in 2009 as a result of declining government revenues and collections. Since then, a significant number of off-island hires left the island and accepted jobs in other states. Due to numerous resignations, the housing privilege was restored in consideration of the current staffing needs of the hospital. Based on the law, allowance-upon availability of funds-could be suspended or terminated by the government.

Torres believes that the CNMI is already providing its hospital workers fair compensation and even higher compared to some other territories.