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CNMI to continue lease on office space
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Posted on Dec 01 1998
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday said all existing lease contracts of government offices with privately-owned buildings have been under review since he took office in January, but lack of available space to house these agencies left him with no choice but to allow them to continue renting.
Because of shrinking cash resources, Rep. Melvin Faisao pressed the administration to abandon the lease contracts in order to realize some $1.19 million in savings annually.
“We are reassessing all these (contracts),” Tenorio said in an interview, along with lease agreements covering a number of vehicles entered into by the past administration, “Of course, we would like to see (the agencies) have their own offices but in the meantime…we have no choice but to lease private buildings.”
According to Faisao, money spent for lease payments could be channeled to fund essential services provided to the community, especially at this time when government agencies are facing a 13.4 percent budget cut. The amount, he added, could also be tapped to pay lobbyists in Washington to ward off federal takeover.
Based on figures provided by Faisao, more than half-a-million dollars are spent by the Department of Labor and Immigration every year to rent the entire second floor of Afetna Sqaure in San Antonio.
The Department of Finance is paying $260,000 for the space it is occupying in Joeten Building in Dandan, while the Public School System is spending $210,000 in annual rent for an office space in Nauru Building.
The Department of Public Works, which office in located in another Joeten property in Gualo Rai, is renting the place for $206,920.
Faisao proposed to move some of these agencies to the newly-built Retirement Fund Building in Capitol Hill to prevent the local coffers from bleeding further.
However, administration sources expressed concern that relocating some of these offices to government-owned buildings would translate to losses in tax payment.
