$70K annual salary for OAG Civil Division chief
Gov. Eloy S. Inos certified and approved the over-the-cap salary of Civil Division chief Reena J. Patel of the Office of the Attorney General, who will now be receiving $70,000 per annum.
The CNMI Compensation Adjustment Act sets the salary ceiling for government employees at $50,000. But the law gives the governor the authority to waive the ceiling and submit a certification to the Legislature.
“By copy of this letter, I am also advising the chairman of the Civil Service Commission of this certification,” the governor said in a July 23 letter to Senate President Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) and House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan).
Patel was sworn in as assistant attorney general on May 15, 2012. She graduated from law school in 2008 from Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, California and previously worked in private practice specializing in business transactions.
There are loopholes in our democratic society.