Scrap housing perks of Sen. President, Speaker

The House of Representatives yesterday adopted recommendation by its Committee on Judicial and Government Operations to legislate measures that would scrap the housing benefits of two ranking CNMI government officials.

Stressing the need to maximize the amount of revenues generated by the government, which has depleted since 1998 due to economic upheavals, the lower chamber raised the need to eliminate housing subsidies for the Senate President and the House Speaker.

The JGO Committee pointed out that financial turmoil currently faced by the CNMI has necessitated the Legislature to try to defray government expenditures in order to continue swift delivery of basic services to the community.

“Your committee finds that the removal of housing for both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives will help reduce government expenses by eliminating the need for funding for maintenance and upkeep,” the recommendation reads.

JGO is recommending that the lower chamber pass House Bill 12-284 which amends existing law granting government housing for the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House.

HB 12-284 excludes the Senate President and the House Speaker from the list of government officials authorized to obtain public houses for their private and residential purposes for the duration of their term in office.

Austerity Measures

The need to complement the administration’s strict implementation of cost-cutting measures apparently inspired the lower chamber of the CNMI Legislature to come up with such a proposal.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio earlier reminded all CNMI government agencies that cost-cutting measures implemented in financial year 1998 remain in effect as he asked officials to ensure that their offices continue to strictly practice austerity.

Mr. Tenorio pointed out the need to continue slashing expenditures to reflect the decline in the overall amount of revenues expected to be generated.

The governor said delivery of essential government services like education, public health and safety, should not be disrupted by declining revenues especially when there are available effective ways to reduce the cost of government operations.

The austerity plan was crafted and implemented, beginning FY-98 or when visitor arrivals to the islands started to trickle, in a way that it would not entail drastic moves that could require general decrease in work hours for employees.

Cost-savings measures have resulted in a noticeable decrease in government expenditures, primarily because of strong cooperation by public offices in reducing or eliminating their respective non-essential expenses.

Government expenses that would require closer monitoring and approval from the Special Assistant for Administration include off-island trips.

Overtime works will also be limited to employees directly involved in law enforcement, fire protection, emergency management or medical service activities.

Faced with the task of efficiently running the government through limited funding, the Commonwealth is also rushing to identify potential business activities that may save further collapse of the economy in order to nourish public coffers.

The austerity program instituted by the administration of Mr. Tenorio resulted in major reduction in government spending that range from as low as nine percent to as high as 50 percent.

In the period covering Fiscal Years 1997 to 1999, the Tenorio Administration managed to cut personnel expenditures by nine percent; professional services by 50 percent; travel expenses by 24 percent; communication costs by 32 percent; and lease vehicles by 27 percent.

The cost-cutting measures were installed following the 20 percent drop in overall government revenues in the same period mainly because of the significant plunge in visitor arrival figures since the onset of the Asian financial crisis.

The 20-percent drop in overall government earnings was a bit low than the anticipated fiscal impact of the recession, thanks to the resilience of the apparel manufacturing industry which posted growth while all the other sectors were on the downside.