By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

HOUSE Minority Leader Rep. Arnold I. Palacios is questioning the administration’s hiring policy, saying government documents show that some 600 new employees have come on board since the governor took over in 2006.
Palacios said the House minority has been cooperating with the administration in consideration of the government’s steadily declining revenues.
But he said they don’t agree with the hiring policy of the administration.
“We all know that we’re working on a reduced revenue base. There’s no question about that. And the Legislature last year said “Okay, we’ll deal with it. We have a plan. We gave (Gov, Benigno R. Fitial) fairly extensive reprogramming authority,” said Palacios.
“But we are disappointed by how they did it. Unfortunately, (the government) hired 600 new employees. (Granting) that some of those hired are cabinet members and essential service (employees), we’re still looking at close to 300 and then 150 (new hires) in recent months,” he added.
Palacios, R-Saipan, said these numbers contradict the administration’s much touted austerity measures.
“That contradicts the policy of the government to cut expenses. That’s sort of problematic. I’m glad that the governor finally decided to freeze hiring because that’s the way to do it,” he said.
The Office of Personnel Management, however, noted that the new hires under the Fitial administration are mostly for replacements.
Department of Finance data shows that a payroll for 4,927 workers is budgeted in the fiscal year 2007 budget.
When the new administration came on board in 2006, it noted that the Babauta administration had hired 640 additional personnel.
Early this year, the Fitial administration submitted a revised FY 2007 budget to the Legislature which cuts by more than 15 percent the government’s payroll costs.
This will reduce the government’s payroll liability through the end of FY 2007 in September from $135 million to about $114 million.
The governor has already notified OPM of his “intent to implement a reduction in force” or RIF.
In an interview after his second State of the Commonwealth Address on April 27, the governor said the RIF would be a last resort.
“This is only a precautionary measure. If it (RIF) needs to be implemented, I will have to issue another notice – a notice to implement,” the governor said.