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‘Many CPA travel, per diem are FAA-reimbursable’
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Posted on Feb 01 2006
The Commonwealth Ports Authority justified the increase in per diem rates that it is seeking, saying that many of its travel and per diem fee expenses are reimbursable by the Federal Aviation Administration.
CPA executive director Lee Cabrera also said the proposed changes in the agency’s per diem rates were based on recommendations by the FAA.
Citing his Pohnpei trip last week to attend an FAA-sponsored Airport Improvement Projects workshop, Cabrera said the federal agency would reimburse the CPA for the cost of his roundtrip airfare and per diem fee of $175 per day.
He also pointed out that the proposed changes have yet to be adopted as regulations and are still subject to public comment. Cabrera said the proposed rate hike was published in the Commonwealth Register on Jan. 30—which means that the 30-day public comment period only began earlier this week.
According to CPA’s proposal, employees traveling within the CNMI will receive a per diem allowance of $175—106 percent greater than the $85 set by the Department of Finance for within-the-CNMI trips made by government personnel.
Cabrera reiterated that the current per diem rates are no longer realistic. In 1996, the CNMI government’s per diem rates for within-the-CNMI travels were $175 for Saipan, $125 for Rota and $100 for Tinian, he said.
CPA’s proposed per diem rate for Guam trips is $200, as opposed to Finance’s $175. The authority seeks a $200 per diem rate for trips to Palau, Chuuk, Kosrae, Majuro, Pohnpei, and Yap, higher than the Finance Department standard of $150.
The proposed per diem rate for travels to Japan, Far East Asia, and Southeast Asia reaches $300. The Finance Department’s per diem scale pegs the rates at $275 for trips to Japan and $200 for trips to Far East Asia and Southeast Asia.
Cabrera assured that the CPA would consider public comments to the proposed rate hike. He said the board would reconsider the proposal if public comments do not favor to it. The CPA board adopted the proposed rate increase in December 2005.
