The Tinian mayor is blaming the secretary of Public Health for not having funds to care for Tinian residents who permanently reside on Saipan all year, and is now insisting that the medical referral program be placed under his office. There are so many things wrong with this picture it is hard to know where to begin.
Tinian, like the other municipalities, is struggling with lack of resources and an inability to make necessary cuts in personnel to cover all others, like the operations of a health clinic. To suggest that the Tinian mayor ought to be given additional responsibility when he has failed to provide basic healthcare to his constituents is ludicrous.
When the medical referral program was initiated, it probably was not anticipated that residents from Rota and Tinian would become permanent patients on Saipan and permanent wards of the government. Aging family members have also been known to move to Saipan from these other municipalities to live with their children so they can all have access to the healthcare available here. This was surely not a cost the government could have ever contemplated, and is certainly not a cost that taxpayers should encourage or continue to bear.
There is no doubt that family members with chronic illnesses like diabetes face tremendous hardship — financial, social and economic — but it may be time for them to consider a permanent relocation to Saipan so they can find jobs and be near the necessary healthcare they and their loved ones require. That may mean fewer political supporters come election day, but it’s a risk the Tinian mayor should be willing to take.
It is worse than it seems
IN the recent Retirement Fund hearing, Judge Govendo heard the secretary of Finance testify that monthly government revenue collections hover around $9 million, of which $6 million is committed to salaries, $1 million to utilities, and the rest, is, well, uncommitted. Finance knows that these dismal figures are likely to go down further and the department is now wrestling with the politicians’ refusal to accept that huge reduction in government revenues has consequences, now and later.
Perhaps it is because she is still new on the job and nonpolitical, but the Finance secretary seems to have approached her work with clarity and purpose, putting the information out there for public consumption. The government audit reports do indicate, however, that in addition to salaries and utility payments that were paid irregularly, there are fixed bond payments that weren’t mentioned in ongoing revenue and expenditure discussion.
Unless the CNMI is prepared to begin defaulting on bond payments, these obligations should appear in the court’s calculation of what the government can and cannot pay.
