Flag Day 2016 racked up more overtime hours for police many of whom are still waiting to be paid for overtime hours from previous years.
Tuala-uta Representative Larry Sanitoa, had been seeking an explanation from Commissioner of Public Safety Save Liuato Tuitele on how the unpaid overtime of police officers could be resolved.
Sanitoa took note of ASG’s financial report from a few months ago which showed that DPS had not spent $200,000 in its budget; He asked why this money couldn’t be applied to the outstanding overtime.
Commissioner Save in his response said he had discussed this matter with the Deputy Treasurer who confirmed $200,000 was unused in the DPS budget when ASG’s books were closed for FY2015.
Save quoted the Deputy Treasurer Tina Onosai saying that Treasury had not received any notification from the Department of Human Resources or the Governor’s Office to use this surplus money to pay overtime.
The commissioner also cited Mrs Onosai saying because FY2015 had already closed, the unspent money could not be use to pay overtime hours despite the fact that the overtime hours were earned in FY2015.
Save said his personnel and finance people assured him the overtime hours for DPS had been submitted through the system in a timely manner and way before the end of FY2015.
The Tuala-uta faipule had mentioned in his letter that his constituents who were police officers had asked for his help in getting their overtime pay.
Save advised the faipule to tell the police officers to come and see him in person.
He assured, “I will personally take time to look into their situations individually and will provide them with an honest answer.”
