Tight belt gets tighter still

The administration implemented more cost-cutting measures yesterday, stopping all government paid cellular phones and controlling government purchases, vehicle and office space leases, and travel.

Acting Gov. Timothy P. Villagomez issued Directive 248, a supplement to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s Jan. 16 directive, which prohibited all government agencies from entering into contracts and traveling using public funds.

Directive 248 applies to the entire Executive Branch. Other branches of government are also encouraged to implement similar austerity measures.

Besides banning government-paid mobile phones, the new directive prohibits purchase of any capital items worth more than $500, new lease on vehicle or office space, and all locally funded travel outside the CNMI. Such transactions or trips will only be allowed if approved in advance by the Office of the Governor.

Directive 248 also instructs all department heads to assess their current telephone lines and effectuate the use of a centralized telephone system in all government offices.

Villagomez noted that most government offices could operate with one or two telephone numbers that can be shared. The phone system, he added, has the feature to hold and transfer calls to other staff within the office, so there is no need to have a telephone on each desk with different numbers.

He also told all agencies to reduce or cancel extra telephone features, and to remove all answering machines from all government offices.

These measures are extremely important to prevent wasteful spending and to help reduce the operational cost of government, Villagomez said.

“As the Commonwealth government continues to experience cash flow problems and reduced revenue collections, it is necessary to exercise even more strict controls on spending for the [remainder of the] current fiscal year 2006,” the acting governor said.

“Therefore, all executive branch employees, department and agency heads are asked to consider carefully any spending requests or decisions in which they are involved. Please defer all expenditures that are not absolutely necessary until the end of fiscal year 2006,” he added.

Department and activity heads were directed to submit all requests for the governor’s authorization to the special assistant for administration.