By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
Variety News Staff

SENATOR Judith Guthertz, D-Mangilao, said yesterday she will ask the Office of the Public Auditor to look into personnel hires made by the Department of Administration over the last 18 months since the department assumed some of the functions and duties of the Civil Service Commission.
At the same time, Guthertz said she intends to either propose an amendment to the revised budget legislation or introduce an independent bill to reinstate the duties removed from CSC and “reestablish the commission the way it was” before the commission was revamped through the 2005 budget law.
“We have been learning over the past two weeks that there have been personnel transfers and hiring of personnel for classified and unclassified positions. I will request DOA to provide me copies of all personnel actions that have been processed for the last 18 months,” Guthertz said.
“I want to see if people were hired based on the merit system or if there were some irregularities in the hiring process. If we find irregularities, then that would justify the need to restore personnel duties to CSC,” she added.
The 28th Legislature inserted a provision in the 2005 budget law removing CSC’s personnel action duties and transferring them to DOA, limiting the commission’s job to hearing employees’ grievances and appeals.
Immediately after the CSC reorganization went into effect, Sen. Jesse A. Lujan, R-Tamuning, introduced a bill in the 28th Legislature to restore the functions removed from the commission.
“The bill was publicly heard but it never made it to the floor. I think this is the right time to revisit that old bill. If Sen. Guthertz or any other senator introduces the same proposal, then I would cosponsor it if it is consistent with my own proposal,” Lujan said.
“I was opposed to the way the CSC reorganization was done. It was a major change that should have been heard in public instead of being slipped into the language of the budget law,” Lujan said.
Lujan deplores the Legislature’s arbitrary decision to strip CSC of its essential powers and give them to DOA without getting any input from the two agencies.