By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

GOVERNOR Benigno R. Fitial returned to the island Sunday after a week-long medical trip to California after undergoing two back related surgeries at the UCLA Medical Center.
Fitial met with cabinet members yesterday and asked that they come up with plans to further reduce their budgets this fiscal year 2007.
Esther Fleming, the governor’s special assistant for administration, said Fitial instructed his cabinet secretaries and the heads of various government agencies to come up with narrative financial reports on how they can further reduce their budgets.
“Aside from the narrative reports, we also asked them to submit organizational charts,” Fleming told Variety.
She said the charts will be evaluated to determine how each agency’s mission can be carried out effectively without adding additional staff.
“Some services may have to be suspended at least for a time,” she said but did not elaborate.
Cathy Anderson, the governor’s public information officer, said Office of Budget and Management Special Assistant Tony Muna will determine how the budgets of agencies can be reduced without compromising their functions.
Anderson said the governor noted that the Department of Public Safety managed to reduce its overtime budget from $100,000 to about $66,000.
She said the governor wants other government agencies to follow Public Safety’s lead.
The administration is proposing to slash by 15.6 percent the government’s current budget spending of $193.5 million to $163 million due to the government’s shrinking revenue collections.
But the Legislature has yet to act on the administration’s proposed revised budget.