By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

MORE than a year after announcing that the government is broke, Gov. Benigno R. Fitial on Monday issued a notice immediately suspending the hiring of additional employees in the executive branch.
Finance Secretary Eloy Inos told Variety that copies of the memorandum were handed to cabinet officials during a meeting last week.
Inos said the order aims to control government expenditures.
“This move is not actually to save money because we’re already operating on a revised projection — it’s more about controlling our expenses,” he explained.
Last week, the House minority bloc revealed that data from the Office of Personnel and Management showed that the central government hired 111 new employees between June 1, 2006 and Jan. 3, 2007 despite the government’s current financial crisis.
This continued hiring, according to opposition lawmakers, raises the question of whether the biweekly austerity holidays are necessary.
But Inos said despite these new hires, the administration managed to secure a $10,000 surplus in fiscal year 2006.
He said the salaries for these new personnel are well within the budget level of $198.5 million in FY 2006.
“Despite the additional workers, we were able to achieve a surplus and that justifies everything — we more than balanced our expenditures and what we earned,” Inos said.
According to Inos, the administration will be more aggressive in managing expenses to cope with the islands’ ailing economy.
“We exercised tight expenditure controls in 2006…and this year we need to be more aggressive,” he added.
The House minority bloc has offered a bill repealing Public Law 15-24, or the austerity holidays law, which mandates a 10 percent salary cut for government employees.
The bill, H.B. 15-210, states that “it is troubling that there have been so many new, non-essential hires at the unfortunate expense of the adversely affected, previously employed government employees, who are struggling to survive the salary reduction in the midst of the increased cost of goods, services, and especially the approximately 100 percent increase in utility rates.”