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LB gives retro salary hikes for 8 staffers
The Legislative Bureau gave retroactive salary increases of $2,800 to $8,000 per annum to eight LB staffers this month, something that acting governor Eloy S. Inos said is “surprising” and “interesting.” The salary increases are effective Jan. 1, 2012.
Included in the eight is an administrative assistant whose $20,208.64 annual salary took effect July 16, but the appointment date is Sept. 30, 2012.
Legislative Bureau director Melchor Mendiola Mendiola, currently off-island on official business, signed off on the retroactive salary increases on July 6 for three of the eight bureau staffers, based on copies of the “notification of personnel action” obtained by Saipan Tribune yesterday.
The five other “notifications of personnel action” were signed by acting bureau director Jonathan Attao.
“Just like any other employee in the Commonwealth-private or government-LB employees are well deserving of pay scale increases, among other benefits. The LB has been working within its budget and has available funds to accommodate this need for its employees, not to say other agencies are not working within their budget,” Attao told Saipan Tribune when asked for comment.
Lawmakers declined to comment on the issue yesterday, most of them saying they do not meddle in the salary adjustments of bureau staffers.
The Legislative Bureau has been exempt from the 16-hour cut.
Many CNMI government employees have been putting in 64-hour work biweekly-instead of the normal 80 hours biweekly-due to the Fitial administration’s austerity measures to cope with shrinking resources.
A provision in the fiscal year 2012 budget law, Public Law 17-55, states that during the fiscal year, “no funds shall be reprogrammed from non-personnel accounts to personnel accounts to increase any salaries from its current level.”
A source at the Legislature said the funds used to cover the retroactive wage hike will not be reprogrammed from non-personnel to personnel accounts, but are already in the personnel account.
An LB librarian/web content editor will get an $8,000 salary increase, from $18,000 to $26,000 per annum.
A legal counsel will have an $8,000 salary increase, from $62,000 to $70,000 per annum. Another legal counsel will have a $5,000 salary increase, from $65,000 to $70,000.
These two counsels, providing services to 20 House of Representatives members, will have salaries at par with that of the lone Senate legal counsel providing services to nine senators.
One of the counsels, in an interview at his office yesterday afternoon, said he has been expecting a salary adjustment since last year.
A legislative assistant will get a salary increase of $5,000-from $30,000 to $35,000 per annum.
A copier machine operator/archivist will get a $3,600 salary raise, from $33,000 to $36,600.
A procurement specialist will have a $3,000 salary increase, from $30,000 to $33,000.
A sergeant-at-arms will have a $2,800 salary increase, from $28,000 to $30,800 per annum.
The Department of Finance will need to certify the availability of funding for these retroactive salary increases.
The bureau’s proposed fiscal year 2013 budget is $1.6 million, contained in the budget bill that the House passed on Wednesday and is up for Senate action.
This is an increase of $158,236 from its fiscal year 2012 funding under PL 17-55.
