CHC housing perks now delayed for 2 months

If it was bad before, it’s even more worrisome now.

That’s the prevailing sentiment of many employees of the Commonwealth Health Center, who told Saipan Tribune yesterday that, despite experiencing austerity measures for several years, they are more demoralized now under the healthcare corporation due to lack of reassurance from both management and the central government.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, employees from various units of the public hospital revealed yesterday that their housing allowance has been delayed for two months now (December and January).

This benefit is issued every first week of the month amounting to $800 per month for those with dependents and $600 for single employees. Employees hired from outside the Commonwealth-most of them nurses and physicians-receive this benefit.

Many fear that they may experience a payless payday on Friday, Jan. 27, after getting no assurances from their superiors and management yesterday that they will be paid on time.

Saipan Tribune tried to obtain comments from corporation chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta about a possible payroll delay this Friday but he did return calls. He earlier said that due to the transition period, payroll would still depend on the local government.

The hospital’s pharmacist, Anthony Raho, who is also a member of the healthcare corporation board, declined to comment about the delayed housing allowance and possible payroll problem, besides saying that the corporation continues to look for money.

“They’re working on it [money for payroll],” he told Saipan Tribune.

According to Raho, demoralization among hospital personnel is not new and has been in existence way back before the corporation took over-since the government started to enforce austerity measures at CHC.

Raho described the current situation at the hospital as “very trying and difficult” but he believes this is common for any organization that is experiencing changes or transition. The changes, he admits, are drastic and very stressful to everybody involved but all desired changes wouldn’t just happen overnight.

The healthcare corporation took over from the Department of Public Health in October 2011 and was given only $5 million as seed money.

Personnel cost

On Tuesday, Babauta told reporters that about 85 to 90 percent of the corporation’s budget goes to personnel costs alone.

He revealed that the biweekly payroll for about 600 personnel costs $800,000-an amount that he said cannot be sustained based on the revenue the hospital generates each month. He said a more realistic budget for the corporation is at least $25 million.

The then-Department of Public Health spent a total of $19.7 million in fiscal year 2011: $18 million for personnel cost and $1.6 million for all others.

The corporation earlier asked the Legislature for a supplemental budget of $38.5 million. Of that amount, $1.2 million is for the subsistence/housing allowance of personnel.