‘Govt to cut work hours to 64’

Joseph “Lee Pan” T. Guerrero

Rep. Joseph “Lee Pan” T. Guerrero (R-Saipan) disclosed yesterday that the CNMI government is going to implement austerity measures once again, this time cutting employee work hours from the regular 80 hours to 64— a deduction of 16 hours.

This developed as House Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao (R-Saipan) called a meeting yesterday afternoon with House members to discuss information he got from the administration about 25.3% that would be pared from the government’s current budget.

Press secretary Kevin Bautista clarified, though, that the administration has not made a formal determination yet on how many hours would be cut. A formal determination will be made by tomorrow, Friday, he added.

Right now, the Office of the Governor, the Department of Finance, and the Office of Management and Budget are still working on a cost-impact analysis, Bautista said, because Gov. Ralph DLG Torres wants to make sure that they get the most accurate numbers.

He said Torres also wants to fully ensure that the administration takes a hard look at the economic impact the coronavirus outbreak will have on the loss of tourists.

“This administration has…been looking at how feasibly and prudently cut in order to properly adjust for this economic loss,” he said.

Bautista said Torres met with the Legislature leadership yesterday morning to discuss the planned austerity measures.

“It’s all one voice. The governor and the legislative leadership have close communication, how both the House and Senate discuss the implications of this cut and the reduction,” he said. “It’s going to be a shared responsibility by both the administration and the Legislature,” he added.

Bautista said that in the governor’s speech to the Saipan of Chamber of Commerce yesterday, he informed the business community and the community as a whole that all options are on the table. He said Torres mentioned reinforcement of cost-containment measures that are ongoing already within the administration to save money and toward retiring the deficit.

Bautista said the second option that Torres discussed is to look at the government’s current structure and see what resources they can leverage in order to make up for this economic loss, with the loss of the CNMI’s second largest market, China.

He said the third option is to look at a reduction in work hours.

In an interview yesterday before the House’s meeting, Guerrero pointed out that, at the last austerity regime, which was lifted only last December, the work hour cut was only eight hours, yet the workers felt it.

Guerrero said this coming austerity measures are going to impact low wage earners—the ones that are being paid at a lower rate than any of the Cabinet members or superiors.

“Everyone has to be mindful that cost-cutting measures need to be implemented even at home. Because if you don’t have the resources, you just can’t be spending money that you don’t have,” he said.

How the CNMI government is going to handle the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak is a good question, Guerrero said.

“If you’re [going] only to promote in Japan and Korea, we have to understand too that they have [also] been impacted by this coronavirus. The number is alarming in their respective country of South Korea and Japan,” the lawmaker said.

At the House meeting, Attao informed the members that during the legislative leaders’ meeting with Torres yesterday morning, the governor talked about a potential $40-million loss due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak, and the anticipated 25.3% reduction in the current budget.

Attao said there’s no official communication yet from the administration about the cut in the budget, but that they are aware that there is going to be a cut and that they have a percentage to share right now, so they can prepare their staff.

Rep. Joel Camacho (R-Saipan) said they need to meet with OMB and Finance because changes are being made mid-stream.

“We’re working with whatever salaries that they are earning prior to this cut that we are [going to] experience next week. [For] some of them, Finance already cut their check, so we’re making adjustments midway,” Camacho said.

Attao agrees with Camacho. “That’s the frustration, right. If we knew this a month ago, it’s be easier to prepare ourselves. We found this out this morning. So rather than drag on and wait for communication to happen, I want to make sure the members are at least aware that there’s a cut coming, so you can prepare. At least you have a percentage to look a, so we can prepare our office for that percentage,” Attao said.

He encouraged fellow lawmakers to introduce more revenue measures that will help the economy.

Attao said he called the meeting with the House members because he wanted to let all the members know about this anticipated cut.

“Because it is not fair for them not to know. I’m not like that. I’m about sharing the information. I don’t want leave anybody hanging,” he said.