Cutting out hazardous pay

Perhaps by necessity, the administration has decided against granting police officers, line crew and fire men hazardous pay. Indeed, it is a costly item which apparently reflects the NMI’s financial posture as a result of the loss of revenue generation in the last two years.

If anything, such a decision has fanned low morale among officers of the peace whose profession occasionally puts them in harms way especially where violence is involved. Such is the sentiment of CUC’s line crew who know equally well that a single mistake with high tension wire would fry them to death. Or the fire man who may fatally be trapped in a huge residential, warehouse or hotel fire.

All three categories of public sector employees are usually summoned to duty upon notice of an approaching storm. They meet intermittently with the emergency task force to review individual and collective assignments for storms, earthquakes, air and sea disasters, tidal wave, or any disaster involving a large number of people.
And the emergency task force is a dedicated team of men and women who go out of their way to ensure immediate relief assistance to victims in, i.e., the middle of a supertyphoon.

If per chance the denial of hazardous pay is part of the administration’s austerity program, it is our view that such pay be restored and considered forthwith to protect the well-being of those who, by the very nature of their work, are often placed in harms way.

It is very unfair to sacrifice the well-being of this group of employees who are constantly faced with danger and death as they go through the day keeping peace and order in our community or extending and replacing high tension wire or fighting huge bush or residential fire across the island.

This issue brings up to a real test whether we have the resolve and management skills in the disposition of public funds. So far, there’s hardly any sign of rock solid decisions to put substance to the single word slogan “austerity”. We can begin by getting rid of luxury cars. In the first place, the purchase of luxury cars is prohibited by procurement regulations. To say that it was purchased by the previous administration, therefore, you can use it is to subscribe to perpetuating violation of procurement regs.

The NMI has spent some $1.4 million in vehicle purchases. Get rid of them so we could sink that money into such necessity as hazardous pay for police officers, firemen and line crew people. Si Yuus Maase`!