Bill making public govt officials’ financial records prefiled

With at least half of the 20-member House of Representatives signing as co-sponsors of Rep. Christopher Leon Guerrero’s (Cov-Saipan) bill to make CNMI government officials’ statements of financial interest open to the public, the measure is expected to pass once it’s put to a vote. Leon Guerrero prefiled House Bill 18-205 yesterday.

The bill seeks to make the statements of financial interest filed with the Office of the Public Auditor open available to the public for inspection.

These include those filed by elected and appointed officials, judicial officers and each public employee who receives additional compensation either for professional services rendered to or as an independent contractor for the CNMI government.

“Although the statements of financial interest are filed with the Public Auditor, the statements are required by law to ‘be kept strictly confidential.’ The public has an interest in knowing the financial interests of their elected officials and appointed officials. The financial disclosure statements should be made available to the public,” the bill says.

The bill’s prefiling came three months since Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) wrote an open letter to the Legislature to amend the law so that the financial statements filed by CNMI government officials with OPA could also be made available to the public.

Sablan said if over 30,000 federal officials including himself could disclose their financial statement without violating constitutional rights, then the CNMI could do it too unless officials have something to hide.

Leon Guerrero, for his part, said it is not about knowing who’s the richest or the poorest CNMI elected or appointed officials but knowing where their assets come from.

Despite the longtime existence of the financial statement filing law, many CNMI officials still do not comply with the law.

Just recently, data from OPA showed that nearly 21 percent or 70 of 334 CNMI government officials required to file a statement of financial interest for calendar year 2013 continue to fail to file such statement beyond the May 31 deadline. They have since continued to accrue a $10 daily penalty.

Unlike many other jurisdictions and countries, CNMI law does not make financial statements public. The assets and liabilities of elected officials are not readily available for public inspection. OPA can only release the documents with the consent of the filer.