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‘Random drug test policy is fully adhered to within PSS’
If other government departments and entities are failing to conduct random drug testing among their employees, that is not the case with the Public School System.
Saipan Tribune learned that just recently, a handful of employees of the CNMI Public School System—mostly its top officials—went through random drug testing.
Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan disclosed that drug testing is a normal procedure in the school system and that they faithfully adhere to the policies, rules, and regulations of the State Board of Education.
“That testing is a normal procedure for us because, in PSS, we do have policy in place that mandates a random drug testing every calendar year,” explained Sablan. A calendar year is from January to December.
For Sablan, anybody in charge of schoolchildren can be subjected to random drug tests, as required by the system policy.
“It’s not just in PSS but everywhere. If you look at the employment requirements for a government employee, the said test is required,” she said.
Under the statute, random drug testing in autonomous agencies is shouldered by the agency’s own revenues and budget, compared to non-autonomous departments that rely on funding for this purpose on the general fund.
It was recently disclosed that in the past year or so, no government agency had undergone random drug tests because of the lack of funds to do so.
