by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Spending Cuts Task Force met today updating its members and the public on how they intend on following through on Governor Eddie Calvo's directive to cut $43 million from the Government of Guam budget.

Back in April, Calvo discussed how the government was sick and today nearly a dozen of the team members empanelled to find a cure discussed in detail what ideas they hope to be part of the remedy. Leading the team to find a concoction of cuts is chief fiscal advisor Bernie Artero, who says within the task force are a series of committees with specific assignments to find savings.

She said, "We're looking at areas to shave off up to 43 million in annual expenditures and if we improve services and we get everything in place as we hoped they would work out, there will be savings."

The bulk of the work for the overall task force lies in the process improvement and outsourcing committee which sets out to work with GovGuam employees to streamline operations and remove redundancies while understanding where cuts can be made and how to improve services. "It helps all of us now to see maybe there was a problem in this agency and how do we fix those issues," Artero said.

The committee's first stops will be at DOA, Rev & Tax, Public Health, the airport, GMH and Public Works. And while the directive back in April noted the $43 million in cuts would surely result in layoffs, today the Committee on Education and worker displacement stated that its completed its findings and plan of action, but might not be necessary as layoffs would be on the bottom of the list of cuts whereas savings and cuts in other areas may not even lead to layoffs.

AHRD director Alfredo Antolin said, "First is one is on-site intervention planning, the second is employee information meetings and then access to services, so we're ready to step on but we're going to be the last subcommittee to step in until you as you give us then numbers."

Part of that optimism stems from discussion of an early retirement program for members of the Defined Benefit Plan that would provide incentives for employees. DOA acting human resources administrator Shane Ngata noted that although people have already shown interest, nothing is finalized and everything discussed at this point is still just talk. He noted, "The key this time is how do we make it work with the least amount of cost impact while still being an incentive for the employee to opt for, all of that is our task."

Meanwhile, the task force has a draft report that examines cost savings by eliminating or reducing premium pay in the public safety agencies and nurses while simultaneously implementing the Hay Plan for all of GovGuam.

"You have to make that solid so any changes and benefits that we may recommend, you can have an accurate account as far as how much we'll actually save," added Ngata.

The task force also charged chief procurement officer Claudia Acfalle with examining the use of government vehicles, controlling costs tied to standardized procurement, gas use, maintenance and whether those vehicles can be auctioned off. The task force meanwhile is looking to push its July 1 deadline to possible July 15 in order to get more public input.