Senate panel asks Finance for itemized allotment, spending of all agencies

Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee chair Jovita Taimanao (Ind-Rota) gave the Department of Finance up to Jan. 16 to provide itemized allotment and expenditures for personnel and operations of all government departments and agencies on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 or from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2011.

Taimanao’s committee is planning an oversight hearing on the first quarter FY 2012 finances, hoping that agencies would be able to stay within their budget and not add to the $25.8 million budget deficit for FY 2011 alone and the cumulative deficit of some $370 million.

The government’s FY 2012 budget is only $102 million, back from the level of over 20 years ago.

The Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee also plans to visit the departments and agencies on the three islands to “discuss, review, and validate” each agency or department’s first quarter allotment and spending.

Taimanao also requested Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson to be at the first quarter budget review meetings from Jan. 26 to Feb. 3 on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota.

“It is important for the government offices and agencies to let the Secretary of Finance know firsthand what is going on with each respective office’s first quarter allotment and expenditures,” Taimanao said in a letter to Larson.

Section 401(e) of Public Law 1-55 requires the Finance secretary to submit at the end of each quarter an itemized report on the allotments and expenditures for personnel and operations of each business unit.

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in a separate interview, said with only a few days since the end of the first quarter of FY 2011, they have yet to come up with a report on the actual collection and spending for the quarter.

He said the administration has not reached the point wherein they would reduce the quarterly allotment among government agencies and departments.

House Ways and Means Committee chair Ray Basa (Cov-Saipan) earlier said that the government’s $25.8 million budget deficit in FY 2011 when the budget was only $122 million and the cumulative deficit of $370 million are “alarming.”

He said the government needs to really start living within its means and be more aggressive in generating additional revenues.

Budget deficit is a combination of overspending and revenue shortfall.