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WTF to foot overtime pay of well drillers
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Posted on Jan 10 2005
The CNMI Water Task Force will foot the bill for overtime work to be performed by Commonwealth Utilities Corp. personnel helping in drilling wells.
Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente, who also heads the task force, said CUC well drillers will be working beyond their normal working hours to assist [task force] members with the Well Field Development Program.
“Due to the anticipated work that we need to accomplish, we anticipate crews to work 10 hours a day, six days a week, including holidays,” Benavente told CUC executive director Lorraine Babauta in a Jan. 4 letter.
The task force will provide funding for overtime hours performed by the drillers, he said. But he stressed that he must pre-approve all overtime hours to be charged to Water Task Force.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta recently signed a law allocating $1 million for the task force, which was created to address the water problem in the Commonwealth and work toward providing 24-hour pressurized water supply on Saipan by the end of this year.
About 50 percent of the island does not have 24-hour water supply.
In November, the task force acquired a new mobile well drilling rig, which the panel bought for $970,000 using U.S. Congress funds. The new equipment is capable of drilling approximately 40,000 feet deep, far more than the fleet of well drillers available at CUC.
Task force officials said the rig will first be used to drill two remaining wells at the Obyan area—seven have already been drilled by CUC—followed with drilling at the Tapochao area. Wells will also be drilled in the Talafofo area in the near future.
