THE Department of Finance last week granted the request of the Commonwealth Ports Authority’s board of directors to waive CPA’s $2.4 million in Office of Public Auditor 1% fee, allowing CPA to give each of its employees a one-time across-the-board $1,200 “discretionary compensation” or bonus.
In an emergency meeting on Friday, the CPA board unanimously approved CPA Resolution 22-01 granting a total of $258,361 in discretionary compensation to the autonomous agency’s 200 employees. Of the total amount, $228,649 will go to 177 airport employees, and $29,712 to 23 seaport employees.
CPA Board Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said this discretionary compensation, which is a one-time bonus, is in lieu of the within-grade increase that CPA management had requested but “because we are not at a point generating enough revenues” the board did not approve.
On Tuesday, Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig informed CPA Executive Director Christopher Tenorio in a letter that Finance had approved CPA’s request to waive the 1% OPA fee in the amount of $2,425,277.58,
Atalig said Finance took into consideration Public Law 22-18 which exempts CPA from paying the 1% fee; the federal mandate that CPA remains in compliance with its Airport Improvement Program Grant Assurance to avert unlawful revenue diversion; and the “tenuous financial position that CPA is currently under as exacerbated by prolonged Covid-19 pandemic closure of all ports of entries that resulted in the unprecedented loss of airport revenues.”
Atalig said he accepted and approved CPA’s request “in view of…compelling rationale and justifications and the need for CPA to remain financially stable.”
Well-deserved
The board members said CPA’s “hardworking employees” deserve a bonus.
King-Hinds said, “As we all know, there are many employees nowadays who for many years, have not seen their very well deserved within-grade-increase.”
She said the one-time bonus is one of the ways the CPA board can show its commitment to all its employees.
“We wish we could do more, but this [bonus] is [the only thing] we can afford to do now,” she added.
She said the Finance secretary’s waiver will also allow CPA to complete the much-needed repairs to the Francisco C. Ada/Saipan International Airport runway.
CPA board member Joseph Diaz thanked the CPA employees for their patience and understanding.
Board member Barrie Toves said he was “very happy that CPA didn’t have to implement austerity measures even at this time of the Covid-19 pandemic because we value the contribution of each of the CPA employees from top to bottom. We are all in it together. We are the frontliners.”
Board member Pete P. Reyes said the bonus “is a little boost to real good employees — we want to try and keep them from leaving us.”
Board member Ramon Tebuteb thanked King-Hinds for her leadership and the CPA employees for their “sacrifice” during the Covid-19 pandemic. The bonus, he added, is “a small step” as the board continues to find ways to give what the employees deserve.
Commonwealth Ports Authority Board Chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds third right, speaks during an emergency meeting Friday in the CPA conference room.
