With a second tranche of austerity measures set to go into effect on March 15, some government departments have asked to be exempted, to no avail. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery department has requested for exemption. At the moment there\u2019s no exemptions being honored,\u201d Finance Secretary David Atalig said. <\/p>\n
Based on the directive, all law enforcement agencies are the only exception in terms of the 64-hour and 16-hour reduction. Law enforcement, such as the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, is minimizing their overtime to the allowable maximum for 24-hour shifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cDFEMS, the police, and Customs, as law enforcement, are on reduced austerity also, but they are on a 24-hour operation as well. They\u2019re being reviewed in terms of scheduling,\u201d Atalig added. <\/p>\n
The Finance secretary revealed that the requests for exemptions are mainly from federal programs, justifying that they are fully-funded by federal grants. Atalig explained, though, that it is a policy of the administration that the reduction be made across-the-board and that no government employee, whether they are federally or locally funded, will be exempted\u2014it is the policy across all government employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal programs are requesting for exemptions but, as we experienced last year in the austerity, we did not grant exemption to all federal programs, only those enforcement federal programs like [the] brown tree snake [program] because, just like Customs, they\u2019re all imports or inspections,\u201d Atalig added.<\/p>\n
There is no more reconsideration, and the austerity will come this March 15.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking the worst-case scenario. We\u2019re observing how this coronavirus will affect our economy. I still need to fund full payrolls until the end of March,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Atalig is anticipating reductions in revenue collections, which would prove to be a challenge given that 80-hour payrolls will still need to be paid, at least for the next two pay periods. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe challenge is the effect of the arrivals from February. I\u2019m going to see reductions in revenue collections, especially from hotel occupancy tax, the spending on tour operators and our tourism industry\u2014we\u2019re going to see a drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m anticipating a drop in revenues from March and the same time I need to pay 80 hours for payroll for the next two pay periods. So it\u2019s going to be a challenge,\u201d Atalig said. <\/p>\n
He is hoping, though, to get better news as weeks go on, from which adjustments could be made. \u201cWe are committed to doing monthly reviews of all our revenues, and analyzing if we need to either reduce more or take further action.\u201d<\/p>\n
The CNMI, with the rest of the world, has been monitoring the effects the coronavirus on tourism and the economy. Guam, the nearest to Saipan, has been experiencing challenges in tourism as well, but not as bad, given that 40% of the CNMI\u2019s tourists are from China, and another 40% are from South Korea.<\/p>\n
Atalig said that they are hoping that the arrivals from Japan could help, but even with that, \u201cit\u2019s not going to replace the challenges we have with the direct flights with China.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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