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House OKs extension of 90-day hiring period
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Posted on Jun 02 2012
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter
Reporter
By a vote of 16-1, the House of Representatives adopted Thursday a compromise bill that will extend by 45 days the period by which a vacant position in government can be eliminated if not filled within 90 days.
House Bill 17-261, Senate Substitute 1, Conference Committee Substitute 1 now goes to the Senate, which can only adopt or reject it, and can no longer make amendments to it because it is a conference committee report.
Rep. Edmund Villagomez (Cov-Saipan) was the only one of 17 House members present who voted “no” to the bill, saying that a 90-day period is enough time to fill critical vacancies. He said in some cases, the 90-day period expires without filling a critical vacant post because of the amount of time it takes to route the documents from one agency to the next.
In an interview yesterday, Villagomez said the current budget law already allows the filling in of critical vacant positions through a joint resolution.
Under the current law, any vacancy not filled within 90 days is eliminated, except at the Public School System, Northern Marianas College, and the Department of Public Safety.
The compromise bill, if signed into law, gives agencies a total of 135 days to fill vacancies, or those vacant positions will be eliminated.
Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan) introduced HB 17-261 on Jan. 17, to amend Public Law 17-55 or the fiscal year 2012 budget law. When the bill cleared the House, the Senate made changes to it that the House rejected, resulting in the formation of a conference committee.
The Senate amendment was to provide for $5 million in Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. seed funds, which would be the state share of the required matching funds for Medicaid reimbursements to CHC. But the conferees agreed that the Senate amendment is already addressed in another bill, HB 17-293. Thus, HB 17-261 is back to its original version.
Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) rescheduled the Senate session for Wednesday, and it is expected that the compromise bill will be approved and sent to the governor. The Fitial administration has been waiting for this bill.
