Legislature waits for OPM’s next move

The Legislature hopes the Office of Personnel Management would provide more accurate information so they could start identifying additional funds for the salaries of employees whose wages were frozen at Step 12 when the austerity measure kicked in 10 years ago.

The Legislature last year allocated $1,451,365 from an over $40-million supplemental appropriation as payment for all active and inactive employees for their outstanding lump-sum wages frozen at Step 12 based on Public Law 10-76.

PL 10-76 was amended by PL 11-59 and is different from PL 19-83, which is for the 5-percent salary increases of all civil service employees, as reported in yesterday’s Saipan Tribune.

Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Sen. Jude U. Hofschneider (R-Tinian) said they had instructed OPM to work with the Department of Finance to make sure that this time all employees’ payment will be accounted for.

“There was a supplemental appropriation of $40 million and OPM provided us a listing with accompanying figures of eligible employees that were affected by PL 11-59. The initial appropriation of $1.4 million has been exhausted and we learned that not all people that were affected and eligible were paid,” said Hofschneider.

OPM director Isidro K. Seman, Employment Development and Staffing director Joseph Pangelinan, and a representative from DoF informed Hofschneider and committee members that only $900 is left from the more than $1.4 million to fund the lump-sum wages.

“There’s $900 left from the account right now. There’s no more money. Well, there’s still some money left but only $900,” said Hofschneider.

Yet there are still 130 active and inactive employees who have not received their lump-sum wages. Active employees are still working in government while inactive ones either retired or are no longer employed in the public sector.

Hofschneider said that the Legislature had based its decisions on information provided by OPM. “Initially they submitted the list that amounted to $1.4 million, but now it is exhausted and we still have people who are qualified that have yet to receive their money.”

“The [Legislature] wants to know what’s the game plan and we need to address this since this is the money of eligible employees who worked hard for it. We want to make sure everything is covered, and settled, once and for all.”

Hofschneider added that the $1.4 million that they allocated did not include fringe benefits and other deductibles like taxes. “We don’t want to say OPM made a mistake but we based our numbers on the information they gave us. Whatever the [OPM] submitted, if ever they made a mistake or not, that’s for them to find out.”

“We’re just going to wait for their report. We need the true figures that will be transmitted to us for consideration. …We’re going to wait for whatever they submit, then we’ll work to identify funds.”

Hofschneider is optimistic the Legislature could find the needed funds to cover the remaining 100-plus employees. “Everything is possible. There’s no deadline, [OPM] can submit it anytime as long as the report they give is accurate. As much as possible, we want to pay everybody to be fair to all.”

Concerns by constituents

House Speaker Rafael S. Demapan (R-Saipan) said those who have not received their lump-sum salaries brought up the issue.

He said House members would continue to discuss the issue so that the Legislature could do its part in order for all qualified employees to finally receive their money.

“Some House members have already met with OPM. We need to look more into the issue and get more information from OPM. We want to know how much money they would need before we could start identifying funds.”

“As long as OPM submits the information, we could appropriate funding so everybody gets what they deserve. We only learned about this last week. We’re looking into the issue right now and we’re getting information as much as possible before we identify funding.”

He added the Legislature, OPM, and Finance should work together. “[OPM and Finance] need to put the numbers together so they could put the request to the Legislature for us to straighten this out and identify the needed funds.”