Critical agencies first in budget hearings

The House Committee on Ways and Means would begin meeting with the department heads of some of the agencies that provide critical services to the community to discuss their budget requests for the next fiscal year.

Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) said the first meeting on June 15 will be with Public Safety Commissioner Robert Guerrero and his counterpart at the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, Commissioner Clyde Norita.

Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Esther L. Muna is next on June 16.

The meetings are in relation to the fiscal year 2018 CNMI budget proposed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.

Demapan said they would finalize the schedule for the Judiciary, the Public School System headed by Education Commissioner Cyndi Deleon Guerrero, and CNMI Medical Referral program director Ron Sablan.

Agencies like DPS and DFEMS provide 24-hour emergency response services. “We deemed them critical because they have personnel round the clock. They need new equipment because it depreciates faster than other departments since it is used around the clock.”

“So, we want to make sure that, in times of emergencies and disasters, we have law enforcement agencies that are ready and equipped to respond to the community. That what makes them critical.”

The CNMI’s lone hospital also needs utmost priority. “The hospital is a very important component of the government because without adequate hospital services we may put the lives of our people at risk.”

“So we want to definitely hear from the hospital and know what their challenges are, but we also want to hear their accomplishments and what are their plans for moving forward.”

Scholarship Office
The committee first met with the CNMI Scholarship Office to discuss Torres’ proposal of having them administer the CW-1 (CNMI-Only Transitional Worker) fees instead of the CNMI Department of Labor.

Demapan said the money is given back to the CNMI from the $150 fees collected in processing CW-1 permit renewals. The money is used for job training programs for the local workforce and other U.S. eligible workers.

“The intention behind this is to make sure the CW-1 training funds directly benefit the students. I’m assuming this proposal is going to be in the form of scholarship grants to students who might want to take courses at [the Northern Marianas College] or [the Northern Marianas Trades Institute] or any other qualified training institution.”

“But because it is a new proposal, we wanted to understand from the [CNMI] Scholarship Office what their plans are and how they plan to administer the program, because we have to remember that some of the vocational schools and entities that are here don’t have the same schedule as the college,” he added.

Demapan said the Scholarship Office’s system is created according to how colleges work, like each school year is divided into semesters and have credit hours.

“The [Scholarship Office] should have a policy that reflects that, if ever they are going to administer the CW-1 training funds for other institutions that are not following the same schedule as the colleges,” added Demapan.