Gov. Benigno R. Fitial has been amending his executive order to allow more government employees and officials to report for work since the shutdown on Friday last week.
Demapan said there are certain requirements that different agencies and programs both local and federal need to meet.
To meet those requirements, the administration has to include more officials and employees to the list of essential personnel.
The Retirement Fund, which was previously not on the list, must release pension checks on Oct. 15 so Fitial amended his executive order to include some Fund staffers.
On Monday, the governor amended his order again, this time adding more people from 25 government agencies and departments, including cabinet secretaries, deputy secretaries and other officials.
More than 35 positions from the Department of Finance and 10 from the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs were included on the list.
“The longer the shutdown, the more deadlines will have to be met so we have to bring them in,” Demapan said, referring to the personnel included on the list.
Once the deadlines are met, the governor can amend his order to remove those positions from the list, Demapan added.
What the administration is doing, he said, is to meet the daily essential demands.
He said the number of essential positions does not comprise half of the entire government workforce.
He was among the administration personnel who attended yesterday’s House session.
He said employees with the “nonessential” agencies were eager to attend the session hoping that a balanced budget would be finally passed so they could go back to work.
Demapan said the bickering between the Senate and House has put people out of work for 32 hours now.
“It’s time to get them back to work. And to do that, the budget has to be balanced,” he said.
