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CPA losing $26K a year from parking booth operation
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Posted on Aug 20 2004
The $1 hourly parking fee at the Saipan International Airport and the Port of Saipan may be too steep for some, but the Commonwealth Ports Authority is actually losing over $26,000 from operating those parking booths, CPA reported yesterday.
This, among other factors, prompted the CPA board of directors to decide in favor of privatizing the operation of the parking booths.
CPA executive director Carlos Salas said that since CPA started charging for parking in 2002, the airport and seaport earned annual average revenues of $122,610 and $68,671, respectively, from fees every year.
But because CPA has not hired employees to man the parking booths since 2002, it had to resort to assigning some of its regular employees, including ports police officers, to do booth work on a rotation basis. CPA then was paying staff members their regular salary—at least about $6 per hour—for doing work at the parking booths.
As a result, personnel costs for the booths’ operation reached $114,488 at the airport and $91,043 at the seaport. Further, CPA spent $2,832 for supplies and repairs at the airport and $9,064 at the seaport.
Deducted from the amount of revenues, these expenses leave a net income of $5,290 for the airport and a deficit of $31,436 for the seaport.
Aside from the loss of money, Salas said CPA could no longer continue under the current arrangement as the employees working at the booth are now needed back in their original posts to handle the increasing passenger traffic.
This leaves CPA with the option of either hiring new employees or contracting a private company to provide manpower at the booths, he added.
Citing the average annual revenues from parking fees, Salas said CPA stands to earn $65,442 for the airport and $22,167 for the seaport by hiring a private company to staff the booths.
The computation was based on the assumption that the company would hire five employees for the airport and three for the seaport and pay each of them an hourly salary of$5, plus 20 percent benefits.
The board approved the plan, and directed Salas to prepare a request for proposal from manpower agencies.
