‘OPA has not had stable finances since ’90s’

Autonomous agencies have almost never made their 1% payments to Office of the Public Auditor as required by the NMI Constitution and that uncollected balances since 1996 are now reaching $30 million, according to Public Auditor Kina Borja Peter yesterday.

At OPA’s budget hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee, Peter said OPA has always received 1% allocations from the general fund and that this has made whole their expenditures.

OPA is funded through allocation of 1% of all locally generated funds. Any unencumbered funds are remitted back to the general fund at the end of the fiscal year.

Peter said while OPA has no claims to the full amount nor able to claim prior fiscal year uncollected balances, these amounts are due the government.

“Consequently, the failure of autonomous agencies to make annual 1% allocation means our office has not had a stable funding source dating back to the late 1990s,” she added.

For fiscal year 2022, OPA requested a budget of $2.5 million, which includes an estimated calculation for 1% funding source from the general fund and autonomous agencies.

The autonomous agencies are the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., Commonwealth Utilities Corp., Commonwealth Ports Authority, Commonwealth Development Authority, Northern Marianas College, Marianas Public Land Trust, and the Marianas Visitors Authority.

House Ways and Means Committee chair Rep. Donald M. Manglona (Ind-Rota) said the initial budget proposal for OPA was $809,000 but the administration’s revised budget that it submitted last Friday now show that OPA stands to receive $993,804.

Peter said inadequate funding has caused OPA’s size to shrink. In 2004, OPA had five audit managers, 14 audit staff members, two lawyers, and five investigators. Now, OPA has one audit manager, eight audit staff members, one lawyer, and three investigators.

Peter said austerity measures and the lack of competitive benefits and salary compensation has caused OPA to lose four employees in the past two years.

Yet while OPA’s available resources have dwindled, the demand for OPA’s skill sets have never been higher, she said.

The public auditor noted that in the past few years, OPA has been delegated additional statutory requirements such as running the Citizen Centric Report program for the government, as well as assisting in all elections.

“Today, OPA increasingly receives requests for special reports, audits, and investigations, causing a backlog,” she said.

Peter said OPA believes these requests will increase as the amount of federal aid coming into the CNMI increases.

The public auditor said their lack of funding does not allow OPA to address potential unanticipated increases in workload nor does it give an opportunity to develop a strategic plan with stable funding sources.