{"id":11907,"date":"2011-11-22T05:28:24","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T05:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=11907"},"modified":"2011-11-22T05:28:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-22T05:28:24","slug":"cut-2m-spending-on-off-island-hires-perks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cut-2m-spending-on-off-island-hires-perks\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Cut $2M spending on off-island hires&#8217; perks&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Haidee V. Eugenio<br \/>\nReporter<\/div>\n<p>If Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan) would have his way, he would reduce the government&#8217;s estimated annual spending of $2 million in housing, expatriation, and repatriation benefits for most off-island hires by limiting the applicability of these perks.<\/p>\n<p>Among other things, he is proposing that housing allowance benefits for off-island hires and those hired within the CNMI and transferred to a post outside the CNMI shall not exceed five years.<\/p>\n<p>Demapan said the government&#8217;s present financial circumstances \u201ccan no longer sustain the benefit package\u201d being offered to off-island hires and employees hired within the CNMI and transferred to a post outside the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n<p>From Oct. 1, 2010, to Aug. 24, 2011, the government spent some $1.76 million in housing, expatriation, and repatriation benefits alone, Demapan said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn essence, the general fund expends approximately $2 million annually for these benefits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Demapan concedes, however, that the government needs to recruit qualified professionals fro certain jobs and the need to maintain some benefits.<\/p>\n<p>If Demapan&#8217;s House Bill 17-239 becomes law, a repatriation ticket will only be given upon the employee&#8217;s full separation from government, and employees shall not receive cash in lieu of repatriation tickets.<\/p>\n<p>Demapan also proposes that housing allowance for off-island hires and employees hired within the CNMI and transferred to a post outside the CNMI will be given to employees upon their separation from his\/her initial hiring and transfer to a new place of employment within the CNMI government.<\/p>\n<p>The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. is also considering scrapping the housing perks currently being provided to hospital workers who were hired from off-island because of the health organization\u2019s shaky financial condition, but there is no final decision on this matter yet.<\/p>\n<p>Public health provides $800 monthly housing allowance to employees who were hired from outside the CNMI with dependents, while $600 is provided each month for single employees. Over 200 personnel presently get this allowance, most of them nurses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Haidee V. Eugenio Reporter If Rep. Ralph Demapan (Cov-Saipan) would have his way, he&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}