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New governor gets an early start on workday
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Posted on Jan 10 2006
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial immediately got down to work on the day following his inauguration as the CNMI’s sixth elected chief executive.
Fitial said his first working day as governor started early. He arrived 7:30am at his new office in the Hon. Juan Atalig Sablan Memorial Building on Capitol Hill.
A series of meetings and functions kept him on the move all day.
His first appointment was a meeting with his newly formed Cabinet. He welcomed the department heads and briefed them on his administration’s top agenda.
Then he met with acting Personnel director Matilda Rosario. “I impressed upon OPM [Office of Personnel Management] that I want to bring back the merit system. I want government employees to go up the ladder based on merit, rather than politics,” he said in an interview.
Fitial also met with officials of the crisis-laden Commonwealth Utilities Corp. Utility experts from the United States and the Philippines were present at the meeting. The new administration has asked them to offer recommendations on how Saipan’s power crisis can be solved and the fuel surcharge abolished.
Next on the governor’s schedule was a joint press conference with former Japan congressman Saburo Tsukamoto, who is on island to participate in the inauguration activities and affirm his support for Fitial’s efforts to entice Japanese investors into the Commonwealth. Japanese media representatives attended the press conference.
A meeting with Fitial’s successor in the House of Representatives, Speaker Oscar M. Babauta, followed.
The governor’s day did not end when government offices closed at 4:30pm. He and Tsukamoto had to appear in another press conference, this time with the local media.
Fitial was also the keynote speaker at the installation ceremony for the new Saipan Chamber of Commerce officers last night. The event started at 6:30pm.
