Hiring of nonresidents for gov’t jobs approved

Citing staff shortage that has hampered delivery of critical public services, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday approved the hiring of nonresident workers to occupy key positions in the government that locals couldn’t fill in.

But at the same time, he called for aggressive recruitment and training program for resident workers for these jobs in a strong message to departments and agencies relying on foreign manpower.

Public Law 12-34 extends by another five years the sunset provision of an earlier law that had allowed some government offices to employ guest workers until September 30 of this year.

Because of the limited number of locals with the similar skills and training, they appealed to lawmakers to grant them the extension of up to 2005.

The new law will help alleviate the critical situation currently facing the Commonwealth Health Center as well as others offices that depend on nonresidents for certain hard-to-fill positions, according to the governor.

“However, I strongly urge these departments and agencies to aggressively recruit and train resident workers to fill these positions,” Mr. Tenorio said in approving the proposal.

Sponsored by Health and Welfare Committee chair Rep. Malua T. Peter, the legislation came amid concerns that these critical positions, without the right staff to handle them, could affect services and programs of the government.

Among those given the extension to work are nurses, allied health providers like X-ray technicians and pharmacy specialists as well as research scientists, engineers and teachers.

The Department of Public Health, the Department of Public Works, Northern Marianas College and Commonwealth Utilities Corp. are expected to benefit from the new law.

However, they are required to develop training programs for locals to phase out nonresident employees within the five-year period.

A one-year and five-year programs will be implemented as a joint undertaking by NMC, the Public School System, the Office of Personnel Management and the Scholarship Office.

This includes management intern program for employees to absorb the necessary job-skills training and education in order to fill the positions currently occupied by nonresidents.

In an effort to check compliance to such requirement, they will have to submit their plans and status report to the Legislature each year. Failure to do so will mean suspension of the privilege, according to the new law.

Initially, the Office of Public Auditor and the commerce department were included in the exemption, but the Senate removed them in the list following determination that sufficient local workers can fill positions in these offices.

Separate legislation will also address the need of OPA for auditors and accountants who are recruited from abroad, such as the Philippines.