House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Ralph N. Yumul, left, and Vice Chairman Blas Jonathan Attao, right, confer with Tinian Rep. Patrick San Nicolas during a committee meeting on Monday in the House chamber.
THE House Ways and Means Committee on Monday voted to remove the allocations for most of the vacant positions in the central government and municipalities to partially address the anticipated $9.1 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2024 budget.
Present in the meeting were the committee’s chairman, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul, vice chairman, Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao, and members, House Vice Speaker Joel Camacho, Reps. John Paul Sablan, Angelo Camacho, Vicente Camacho, Denita Yangetmai, Marissa Flores, Julie Ogo, Joseph Flores, Patrick San Nicolas and Roman Benavente.
They agreed not to fund vacant government positions for which the hiring process hasn’t started yet. But the job positions that have been announced and are now in the process of being filled up will be funded.
The committee came up with the decision after hours of discussing the $9.1 million shortfall and how to raise revenue without increasing the business gross revenue tax as proposed by the administration.
In an interview after the meeting, Rep. JP Sablan said the funding for the vacant positions in Gov. Arnold I. Palacios’s FY 2024 budget submission totaled $3.9 million.
However, the Office of the Personnel Management has said that some of the vacant positions are already in the process of being filled.
So the committee decided to consider only the vacant positions that have yet to undergo the hiring process, Sablan said.
The positions to be defunded amount to about $2.6 million, he added.
It’s not enough, he said, which is why the committee will again meet today, Tuesday, to find other ways to address the government’s shortfall.
During last week’s meeting, the committee agreed to reduce the budgets for the Senate and House leaderships to $100,000 each from $200,000 each.
