Babauta, Covenant-Saipan, said the austerity holidays, which will force government offices to shut down at least twice a month to save personnel expenses, is necessary to keep public servants employed during these tough economic times.
“The proposed austerity holidays are a result of the government’s declining revenue. We have to sustain our current employees this fiscal year,” Babauta said in an interview yesterday.
But Rep. Justo S. Quitugua, D-Saipan, also a minority bloc member, said the austerity holiday is not good because it isn’t implemented fairly.
The CNMI government shut down its government offices every other Friday during FY 2007 but more than 1,000 personnel were exempted, mainly due to the nature of their jobs.
Quitugua said the government should have just rotated or placed under shifting schedule personnel in government agencies like the Departments of Public Safety and Public Health which must be open 24 hours a day.
“If we are going to have austerity holidays again, we should do it fairly,” he said.
Rep. Edwin P. Aldan, Covenant-Tinian, for his part, said he’s against the austerity holidays because the people are already enduring economic hardship.
“People can’t even buy food,” he said. “There are a lot of ways to cut our budget.”
The three yesterday discussed the latest version of the proposed $156.7 million FY 2009 budget.
The House of Representatives is scheduled to hold a session this afternoon and the budget is on its agenda.
