OPA may be allowed to retain nonresident staff

Despite controversies over last-minute appointments made by former Public Auditor Leo LaMotte, nonresident employees of the Office of the Public Auditor may be allowed to renew their employment contracts.

This, after Senator Pete Reyes said the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development and Program may likely recommend passage of House Bill 12-174 to grant OPA extensions in the employment of its alien workers.

The said bill, or the Commonwealth Auditing Amendment Act of 2000, rescinds the section of the “Nonresident Worker Extension Act,” which prohibits OPA from hiring more nonresident professionals after September 30, 2000 or upon expiration of their contracts, whichever comes first.

Mr. Reyes said his committee may also approve OPA’s request for an additional 10 full-time employees. It is also likely that Public Auditor Michael Sablan would get a $1,000 monthly increase in his compensation package.

However, it is not certain whether OPA will be given the independence to set its own compensation, wage and salary scale to its employees, which is also asked for by the bill.

Officials from the Office of Personal Management and the Attorney General’s Office raised questions on the legality of the provision during a Senate hearing on the bill last week.

HB 12-174, introduced by Rep. Oscar M. Babauta, primarily calls for the extension of the exemption granted to the OPA for hiring nonresidents professional employees.

It asks the legislature to extend the sunset clause embodied in the Commonwealth Auditing Act of 1983, until such time when sufficient professionals in the field of accounting or auditing are available in the CNMI.

The hearing took a controversial turn weeks back when Senator Reyes criticized Mr. Sablan’s predecessor, Mr. LaMotte, of not seriously implementing the internship program of OPA.

The lawmaker noted that if the previous public auditor only did good in developing competent and skilled local hires of the OPA, extending the sunset provision would not have been needed.

Mr. LaMotte also got the ire of several senators, including Sen. Thomas Villagomez and Senator Ramon Guerrero, when it was unearthed that the former public auditor renewed the contracts of OPA staff at the middle of their term.

Reacting to criticism against his predecessor’s policies, Mr. Sablan maintained a diplomatic position.

He said that unless there were legal questions on the extensions given by Mr. LaMotte, he would prefer moving forward and implement his own internship program being broached in the legislature.

Mr. Sablan believes his proposed program would be more effective than the previous ones since it would be pooling together the collective resources of the OPA, Northern Marianas College, University of Guam, USDA graduate school and private independent auditing firms like Deloitte Touche, Tohmatsu.