Almost $1M in excess personnel spending by Legislature

Almost $1 million in the CNMI government’s total $4.176 million excess spending just for personnel alone in fiscal year 2011 was incurred by the Legislature, whose members have yet to fully review Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s FY 2011 report showing a $25.8 million deficit.

At the same time, Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota) said yesterday that her panel will conduct an oversight hearing on the first quarter of FY 2012’s budget “to ensure that we don’t incur additional deficit.”

House Ways and Means chair Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan), along with Taimanao, Rep. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan), and other lawmakers, were also surprised to learn that the governor’s financial report included almost $1 million in personnel overspending by the Legislature.

“I hope that’s an error, but if that’s accurate, that is too much and irresponsible,” said Basa, adding that he will further review the governor’s report.

Fitial reported that the $25.8 million deficit was a combination of $565,456 in revenue shortfall and over $25.2 million in overspending at a time when the revised budget was only $122 million in FY 2011.

The bulk of these over-expenditures were from the Department of Public Health, its Commonwealth Health Center, Medical Referral, and Medicaid.

Of the $25.2 million over-expenditure, almost $4.2 million was in the area of personnel.

And of the $4.2 million, over $2.8 million was incurred by DPH and its component agencies.

The Legislature, for its part, incurred $931,101 in over-spending for personnel alone.

Taimanao said the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee will assess the governor’s report and find out why the Legislature was reported to have almost $1 million in overspending for personnel alone.

This review is in addition to an oversight hearing on the first quarter of the 2012 budget.

Yumul said the almost $1 million in excess spending for personnel might have been caused by the Legislature’s failure to comply with the governor’s request to reduce allotment by 9.76 percent when he revised the FY 2011 budget from $132.5 million to $122 million.

He also pointed out that the personnel spending includes not only lawmakers’ salaries that are constitutionally protected, but also contributions to the Retirement Fund, life insurance, and medical insurance.

Besides DPH and the Legislature, the other government departments and agencies with excess spending on personnel alone include:

-Department of Public Safety, $651,959;

-Office of the Attorney General, $255,795;

-Rota, $398,527;

-Judiciary, $172,143; and

-Tinian, $97,951.

The $25.8 million budget deficit in FY 2011 despite 16-hour work cuts biweekly and other austerity measures brings the CNMI government’s “estimated” total cumulative deficit to $370 million. The deficit in FY 2009 was $300.8 million and in 2008, $256.3 million.