by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - After taking Friday off from hearing from government agencies justifying their numbers, the acting chair of the Committee on Finance and Taxation, Speaker Judi Won Pat, will continue budget hearings starting Tuesday. Scheduled to present their proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013 is the University of Guam.

The committee will then take a break and come back Friday to hear from the Unified Courts of Guam at 9 in the morning. The proposed FY2013 budget presented by Adelup calls for $773 million in appropriations. However, several agencies that went before senators last week requested more than what they were allocated by Adelup.

The Guam Memorial Hospital was the only one that requested lower than their budget ceiling raising concern from their committee chair Senator Dennis Rodriguez, Jr. questioning the hospital's priorities.

Governor Eddie Calvo sees it differently. "I think that's commendable," he expressed. "We need to see more agencies that can find savings without hitting on critical services, so rather than some of the criticism that's coming from members of the legislature, they should give them a pat on the back."

According to Calvo, the hospital's found ways to cut costs adding for many years there has been over 1,000+ workers at GMH, which is a hospital that has under 200 beds. He adds GMH has had over 160 vacancies, which they've wiped out of their budget.

Senator Rodriguez on the other hand contends the hospital is maintaining the status quo and spending more on legal fees than hiring much needed personnel such as nurses.