Currently, the CNMI Department of Labor is the proper authority to be conducting the PWS for the islands.
The Central Statistics Division, by statute, is the proper authority to be conducting or facilitating any official survey or census for the CNMI.
Upon completion and compilation of the PWS data by the division, Labor will receive all least sensitive data necessary for a prevailing wage process.
Management and processing of all prevailing wage survey will be the function of Labor.
Central Statistics Division Director Ivan Blanco, who is the lead project coordinator for the PWS data collection, assures that they will retain all confidential and sensitive data.
He acknowledged Workforce Investment Agency Director Edith Deleon Guerrero, Secretary of Labor Gil San Nicolas, and acting Commerce Secretary Sixto Igisomar for their ongoing efforts in getting the PWS off the ground.
It is similar, if not the same, as the ongoing survey that the Saipan Chamber of Commerce is conducting. However, the PWS of the government will capture business information on business inventories, expenses, job inventory, and so on, to support data availability for the CNMI’s Gross Domestic Product reports.
The Central Statistics Division and Labor understands the need for the chamber to initiate its survey as any entity may decide to conduct their own PWS in the absence of any existing survey.
The overall goal of the Fitial administration is the development of a long-term process or system on all future and annual prevailing wage survey that the CNMI Department of Labor will conduct.
According to Press Secretary Angel Demapan, “The administration is firm to put a process in place to provide stability and certainty to the business community with respect to availability of local jobs prevailing wage survey.”
