PSS upbeat about DoF promise

By Marconi Calindas
Reporter

The Public School System remains optimistic that Finance Secretary Fermin M. Atalig will fulfill his promise to remit the remaining balance for the “all other” accounts of PSS, amounting to a total of $2 million on or before Monday next week.

In a letter Atalig sent to PSS commissioner Rita H. Inos last Jan. 7, the secretary assured PSS that the Bank of Guam would cover all checks issued by PSS for pay period No. 1/2005, which was transferred as promised last week.

Atalig’s letter was also based on an earlier meeting he had with PSS officers David M. Borja and Richard Waldo.

The DoF secretary also assured Inos that her office would get the funds to cover all pay periods and arrears by Jan. 31, 2005 or earlier.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Borja, who is associate commissioner of the PSS. “That’s the bottom line, if Feb. 1 comes and we don’t receive the funds, then our vendors will not get paid.”

Borja, though, is still positive that DoF will remit the remaining balance of $2 million to PSS on or before the Jan. 31, to allow vendors to pay their Business Gross Revenue Taxes, due also on that date.

The vendors of PSS reportedly have sought the assistance of law firms in an effort to collect from them.

Vendors have claimed long overdue payments for procurement and services they rendered to PSS, such as repair services for the school buses that has ballooned to $20,000, which has not been paid since last year.

Unlike Borja, however, Board of Education member Herman T. Guererro is pessimistic about the government’s capacity to transfer the funds on time.

“My senses tell me that it’s not going to happen. These are just one of those broken promises,” he said.

Guererro said that he did not believe early reports quoting government officials that they have never withheld money to PSS. “Of course they have.”

The PSS board member went on to say that the government neglected to give them the money to pay for the employees in December 2004 and PSS went out of its way just so it could come up with the money to cover the payroll for its employees.

If the money is not remitted on time on Jan. 31, Guererro said that they would have to find means to deal with the problem.

The DoF remitted approximately $1.3 million to PSS last Friday for pay period No. 1 for 2005 and PSS was able to pay all its employees their salary.

DoF also remitted a total of $1.9 million to PSS on Jan. 7 for PSS payroll Nos. 25 and 26 for 2004 and other expenses before the supposed public school shutdown on Jan. 11.