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New hires despite hiring restrictions
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Posted on May 22 2009
The government hired an administrative assistant, a clinical attendant and a conservation technician right after the enactment of the Fiscal Year 2009 budget that restricts hiring until Sept. 30, 2009 except for critical positions and replacement hires.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed the $156.76 million FY 2009 budget law on March 13.
Two days later, an administrative assistant started working for $24,999.52 a year.
The administrative assistant’s salary was much higher than the $13,703.04 annual salary of the clinical attendant 1 who started working three days after the budget bill became law.
A conservation technician earning $11,279.84 a year started working on March 23.
Isidro K. Seman, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, provided a list of new hires since the enactment of Public Law 16-32 on March 13, in response to an inquiry from Rep. Ray N. Yumul.
Yumul, the chairman the House Ways and Means Committee, told Saipan Tribune that there may be other new government hires but said he has yet to get more information because the OPM director’s letter covered only between March 13 and April 21.
“I would understand hiring a clinical attendant because it’s a critical health staff, but an administrative assistant when we have problems with the budget?” Yumul said.
The budget law restricts hiring of new employees in any branch of the government, including public corporations, municipalities, boards, commissions, authorities, and independent agencies until Sept. 30, 2009.
It, however, allows replacement hires that are deemed critical to the delivery of public service, but only with the approval of the House speaker and the Senate president.
“As chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, it is my fiduciary responsibility to make sure that government expenditures are kept within the limits allotted by law,” Yumul told Seman in a letter.
The $156.76 million FY 2009 budget, which includes $148 million from local collections, became law after the House overrode the governor’s veto. The Senate also overrode the veto.
The new budget allows for more than 4,000 full-time employees.
