GOVERNMENT employees and frontliners should have already begun receiving their premium pay on Thursday, Dec. 23, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said.
The Department of Finance has begun releasing $5,000 in premium pay for each CNMI government employee who has worked at least 40 hours to directly mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.
These include those who have worked on the front lines of the pandemic for such jobs as providing prevention, response, preparedness, and recovery services.
CNMI government employees who have worked to provide essential public services since the pandemic began will receive $1,000 in premium pay.
“As we close this year, in good spirit, I wanted to thank all of our government employees…. This is to give a reward and is just an acknowledgement for all the sacrifices that our frontliners have done throughout the last couple of years,” he said.
“If you’ve realized, throughout my administration, we don’t just go out and tell the community, ‘Oh, we’re going to do this. Oh, we’re planning to do this,’ if we don’t have something concrete. [With] this [premium pay], we’ve had numerous conversations with the secretary of Finance on where and how we can utilize funds, not just to try to increase salaries across-the-board, but to provide opportunities and… to reward… frontliners. Every government employee is important, [and] every occupation, but… throughout this pandemic, Covid-19 frontliners have put their lives on the line and [have made] extra sacrifices. So, with that, we got some clearance and through Secretary [David DLG Atalig] and [the Department of Finance], we were able to provide this amount to every frontliner.”
This batch of premium pay is specifically for executive branch employees, given that other divisions and departments have already received similar assistance, the governor said.
“We’re still looking at other departments to assist. For example, for public health, we’ve given [the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.] close to $6 million to assist on the premium pay. We’ve helped [the Commonwealth Ports Authority] as well, I believe, with close to $2.2 to 2.4 million to assist their employees. Then, of course, now, with our executive branch, to assist on their premium pay or bonus,” said the governor.
Government employees and frontliners who have accounts with Bank of Guam should have received their premium pay by noon on Thursday, December 23.
All others should have received their payments on Friday, December 24.
Governor Torres said these funds have already been cleared for disbursement.
Secretary Atalig, for his part, said that the CNMI has expended about $3.6 million for premium pay in this first batch.
“Like the governor mentioned, there are some other clarifying areas and departments that we’re still going to be working with to get the premium pay, but keep in mind that the premium pay is not just for the executive branch or just the frontliners. We have, in our spending plan, budgeted $30 million for premium pay, and that includes the frontliners and workers that are in the private sector. We have allocated and will be working with the private clinics, ambulatory services, and dialysis centers that are private. We’re working with them, we’re in communication with these clinics and services, and we should be helping them in the next couple weeks. We’ve already, as the governor mentioned, also helped the CPA, [the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.], and we’re still working out the details with the other autonomous agencies,” he said.
As of Thursday, 458 frontliners were due to receive the $5,000 in premium pay and 1,955 government employees the $1,000 in premium pay.
Ralph DLG Torres
