by Lannie Walker

Guam - The final report on a study of the Government of Guam pay scale is expected to be in at the end of the month. But whether the government can fund a massive pay upgrade is another question.

With budget shortfalls projected to continue by the Bureau of Budget Management and Research, the Department of Administration pushes on in making it possible to implement a sweeping public sector pay raise. DOA Deputy Director Joseph Manibusan says Neville Kenning, vice-president of the Hay Group, the company contracted to conduct a study on the pay rate of GovGuam workers, will return to Guam in a couple of weeks.

He explained that Kenning will return, "To make some final adjustments possibly final adjustment to the hay study and the DOA will be working on other documents that will go with a report to go to the governor."

During his last presentation on Guam, Kenning reported the pay scale of GovGuam is 59% below market value. One recommendation of the study was to bring the pay scale up to 15% below mark. DOA Human Resources Administrator Cecilia Martinez says it is up to her agency to make the pay upgrade legal, telling KUAM News, "We have the study team from DOA all the supervisors here on human resources are working here on revising the pay policies...so they have been working on changes to legislation changes to policy thing of that nature...for GCA Chapter 5, which deals with the salaries, that's what we are looking at and we are trying to look at all the laws that are already in the code of regulations."

The Hay Group is also expected to release finding on the recommendation for a pay increase to the Executive Branch, including the positions of governor and lieutenant governor. But whether the pay hike will become a reality is dependant on whether GovGuam can come up the money to pay for it. BBMR director Bertha Duenas says the figure to fund the Hay Study recommendations may be at zero. "The hay study is the big item, it might not if we're status quo, we don't have the hay study in place so obviously there's got to be new money to put it," she said.

New money to the tune of $13 million, which is how much the pay raise is estimated to cost.