By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

GOVERNOR Benigno R. Fitial wants the Office of the Personnel Management removed from the executive branch as the administration prepares to merge civil service and excepted service personnel into one system.
Speaking to reporters after the 7th Western Micronesian Chief Executives Summit, the governor said excepted service “is just a convenience to accommodate unqualified employees.”
Based on the fiscal year 2007 budget, or Public Law 15-28, the government is paying the salaries of 4,927 full-time employees.
It was not immediately known how many of each, civil service and excepted service, there are.
“We cannot have a double standard,” Fitial said. “This is what I am facing now in the government. One is civil service under the merit system and the other is excepted service, which is just a convenience to accommodate unqualified employees and that is not right,” said the governor. “I want everyone to be under Civil Service as envisioned by Constitution.”
He said an administration-sponsored bill seeking to place OPM under the Civil Service Commission is now pending in the Legislature.
“Everybody will be civil service. One system. One standard. Now there are two standards. That’s no good. (Transferring OPM to CSC) may not be good for me politically, but I don’t care about politics. I want to straighten out problems,” he added.
The average government biweekly payroll, including housing allowances for some personnel, is $2.973 million.