Dela Cruz also asked Office of Personnel Management acting Director Frank Ada to provide him information about the 20 municipal employees who were converted to civil service status.
As the newly sworn Tinian mayor, Dela Cruz said the CNMI Constitution empowers him to “recall, rescind, and cancel any and all requests for personnel action that was initiated by former mayor of Tinian and Aguiguan, Jose P. San Nicolas.”
He added, “Please take notice that any further processing of any request for personnel action that was initiated by former Mayor San Nicolas is not only illegal and unconstitutional…it is also not sanctioned, ratified or requested by me. As such, any further processing of the illegal ‘conversions’ will subject you and/or the CNMI government to taxpayer lawsuit and other causes of action.”
The Tinian municipality has approximately close to 140 employees.
Before the Nov. 7, 2009 general elections, San Nicolas converted the status of 20 exempted employees to civil service to “protect” their employment.
Dela Cruz now wants OPM to provide his office the names of the 20, their positions, corresponding salaries and their departments.
He also requested for any certification that the conversions do not exceed the full-time employee ceilings for the departments that they were assigned to.
“As you know, pursuant to § 602 of Public Law 16-32 and the Civil Service Commission legal counsel’s opinion, a desk audit must be conducted on all positions to be filled, even assuming that P.L. 16-32 has not expired, which it has. Unless and until a desk audit has been conducted, no ‘conversion’ is complete,” he said.
Tinian’s single biggest taxpayer is Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino. The island, like Rota, also relies on tax collections from Saipan, the center of business activities in the CNMI.
