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WTF asked to foot water lab’s overtime bills
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Posted on Jan 28 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has asked the CNMI Water Task Force to fund the overtime work not only of well drillers, but of water laboratory staff as well.
CUC executive director Lorraine Babauta said CUC laboratory staff may also be required to work overtime to perform pump tests for the Well Field Development Program.
“However, because of CUC’s current financial condition, I am requesting your consideration and approval for the WTF to also fund the laboratory staff’s overtime hours, if any, to conduct the pump tests,” Babauta said in a letter to Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente, who heads the task force.
She said that, if the task force approves, CUC will include the lab staff’s overtime hours with the drillers’ in CUC’s monthly statements to the task force for reimbursement. She added that CUC will have the task force pre-approve any overtime work that will be charged to it.
The task force earlier committed to paying for the overtime work performed by well drillers who will be helping task force members with the Well Field Development Program.
The project aims, among other things, to bring newly drilled wells into compliance with Safe Drinking Water standards.
“Due to the anticipated work that we need to accomplish, we anticipate crews to work 10 hours a day, six days a week, including holidays,” Benavente had told Babauta in a Jan. 4 letter.
The task force will provide funding for overtime hours performed by the drillers, he said.
Gov. Juan N. Babauta recently signed a law allocating $1 million for the task force, which was created to address the water problem in the Commonwealth and work toward providing 24-hour pressurized water supply on Saipan by the end of this year.
About 50 percent of the island does not have 24-hour water supply.
