$15K contract for govt wage survey

The Department of Commerce will be awarding a $15,000 contract to CNMI-based company, Data Talks, for the conduct and implementation of the CNMI government’s 2011 prevailing wage survey.

The government survey is separate from the Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s own survey, contracted out to the Guam Employers Council which specializes in extensive services in wage and salary management and prevailing wage surveys.

The Chamber’s contract with GEC is about the same amount as that awarded by Commerce to Data Talks.

Acting Commerce secretary Sixto Igisomar said the $15,000 contract for Data Talks “is being routed.”

“Upon completion of contract routing, the contract is expected to finish no later than October to November 2011,” Igisomar told Saipan Tribune in an email response.

Igisomar said the survey is expected to start soon.

Under the contract’s scope of work, Data Talks will coordinate and assist in the implementation and completion of the 2011 prevailing wage survey.

This includes the survey methodology, instrument training, and development of accountability procedures for use by Commerce’s Central Statistics Division and the Department of Labor in handling the prevailing wage survey.

Data Talks is also to develop and implement the prevailing wage survey for use by Labor, as well as extract data for Commerce’s CSD for a job inventory survey data base.

“It is the government’s duty to conduct this survey and provide results to the public. However, again, absent a prevailing wage, the Chamber may decide to conduct their own,” Igisomar added.

Commerce earlier said its Central Statistics Division will be visiting all businesses in the CNMI by mid- to late August to conduct a prevailing wage survey. The department has asked the patience and cooperation of all businesses.

The department said its prevailing wage survey is similar, if not the same, as the ongoing survey that the Saipan Chamber of Commerce is conducting.

“However, the PWS of CSD will capture business information on business inventories, expenses, job inventory, and so on, to support data availability for the CNMI’s Gross Domestic Product reports,” Commerce said.

The Fitial administration is still awaiting the results of its $40,701.99 grant application with the U.S. Department of Labor for the prevailing wage survey.

But the administration said with or without the grant, they will move forward with the survey.

The Chamber, for its part, bagged a $16,150 technical assistance grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior for the conduct of its own 2011 survey of wages, salaries, and benefits.

The survey results can be used to establish prevailing wage rate determinations for CNMI employers applying for federal employment visas for existing and future foreign workers.