By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Public School System’s water will not be disconnected as it has made arrangements to pay the Guam Waterworks Authority this week.
Yesterday was to have been the deadline for GPSS to pay up, but GPSS Superintendent Luis Reyes said his department made arrangements with GWA to make a $97,000 payment by Thursday.
In addition, Reyes said GPSS got $2 million from the administration last Saturday. But he said this will be used solely for payroll to comply with the warning issued by the Attorney General’s Office about paying off payroll deductions.
Last month, the AGO filed a complaint against GPSS over its failure to pay the “full payroll” of GPSS employees.
For the payroll period ending Feb. 17, 2007 and March 3, 2007, the AGO said payroll deductions from gross wages of GPSS employees were not paid to vendors within five days of the day GPSS employees’ pay was due for those pay periods.
According to Attorney General Alicia Limtiaco, these actions resulted in a violation of the Guam Fair Labor Standards Act as well as the island’s wage and hour laws.
Reyes has said that because of the attorney general’s action, GPSS can no longer issue checks that just cover its employees’ net payroll. GPSS still needs about $5 million to cover the gross payroll.
In addition, GPSS owes another $900,000 to the Guam Power Authority. If GPSS does not make a payment, GPA said a notice of disconnection will again be sent to GPSS.