230 govt employees may soon get lump sum payment

A total of 230 employees may soon receive lump sum payments, with the House of Representatives looking to appropriate a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2017. The eligible employees are those who have been frozen on Step 12 that started during the government austerity measure of then-governor Benigno R. Fitial.

House Committee on Ways and Means chair Rep. Angel A. Demapan (R-Saipan) said they would wait if Gov. Ralph DLG Torres would declare a supplemental budget for fiscal year 2017. “It is only fair that they [employees] get their compensation because it is mandated by Public Law 19-75.”

The Office of Personnel Management and the CNMI Department of Finance identified the 230 employees based on the review they made with their respective records, which was consolidated and checked to avoid names being entered twice.

“That is a list that we’re depending on OPM to make the decision on because, obviously, the Legislature is not privy to personnel records. You have to be frozen at Step 12 for so many years. OPM needs to go back into that employees’ personnel records and make sure that qualifications set by the law are met by that person,” said Demapan.

He said those on the list were inactive employees—which they found out were eligible for the lump-sum payment—that were either former personnel that are no longer in government or those who have already retired from public service.

“We’ve discovered that inactive employees are eligible based on the language of the law [PL 19-75], which says active and inactive. So the Committee asked OPM and Finance to come up with a list of inactive employees. To date, OPM and Finance identified 230 employees,” said Demapan.

Chapter 3, Section 302 (h) of PL 19-75 states that “the amount of $1,451,365 shall be used to pay the outstanding retroactive lump-sum payment to active and inactive employees, whose wages were frozen at Step 12, pursuant to PL 10-76 and as amended by PL 11-59.”

He added that the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., formerly the Department of Public Health, also came up with its own list of employees. “These are employees who were part of the former DPH. Now that list is being consolidated with OPM.”

“The committee has asked OPM to do another review of the list to make sure the names provided by CHCC are eligible to meet the eligibility for the lump-sum payment so that they can be included when we work with another appropriation.”

OPM has also found out that 41 active employees from the first batch on the list they gave to the Legislature have not been paid after the $1.5 million that was appropriated was deemed not enough.

Demapan said the money they appropriated was based on the amount provided by OPM. The active employees on the list were frozen at Step 12. “From the first round of the list of active employees, 41 did not get paid because the $1.5 million was exhausted.

“They [OPM] needed additional appropriation so that the 41 may get paid and for us to satisfy our obligation to them. At this point, our projection and based on OPM’s last update we’re looking at an additional $1 million that would need to satisfy payments to the remaining recipients of PL 19-75.”

He is hoping the government would be able to pay their obligation to all employees—active and inactive—that were frozen at Step 12. “These are during the austerity period and up to when the law was enacted. It depends on additional revenues.”