DESPITE the government’s declining revenue collections, Public Auditor Michael S. Sablan and 17 other OPA employees are asking for a pay hike.
Sablan, who receives $80,000 a year, wants to be paid $100,000 annually starting in fiscal year 2003—a 25 percent increase
Sablan declined to comment.
The proposed rate increase for the 17 other OPA employees ranges between over $1,000 to more than $15,000 per annum.
Sablan is the only political appointee in the Office of Public Auditor. Last year, excepted service contract employees of the agency totaled 38 and their wages reached $1.305 million.
For FY 2003, the number of excepted service contract employees of OPA is estimated to reach 48, and their total wages for the period would cost taxpayers $1.195 million.
Under a law signed by then Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio, Sablan is entitled to receive the maximum salary of $100,000 per annum. In signing the law, however, Tenorio noted the government’s cash-strapped condition, adding that the pay raise should be implemented once the economy improved.
Recent government figures, however, indicate that the government’s revenue base continues to shrink.
Sablan was Tenorio’s special adviser for finance and budget and was behind the implementation of the then administration’s much criticized austerity measures.
Several government employees, who declined to be identified, said OPA is a non-revenue raising government entity that should also defer any salary increase to keep up with the new administration’s renewed call for austerity measures.
They said even autonomous agencies such as the Commonwealth Ports Authority recalled the salary increases for its port managers.
