Reyes urges recovery of misspent funds

The chair of the House Ways and Means Committee has prodded Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to seek drastic measures that will allow the government to recover millions of dollars in questionable expenses incurred during previous administrations.

Representative Karl T. Reyes also expressed doubt that the current administration will be able to retire public deficit, which currently stood at $57.3 million, by next year as mandated under the Constitution.

“We have to find ways to recover those money which are mostly overexpenditures. Who is responsible for that,” he said in an interview. “It’s like an authorized spending, rather than an actual deficit.”

The Public Auditor last week released its findings detailing the status of the government deficit based on singe audit report by Deloitte & Touche covering Fiscal Year 1997 under former governor Froilan C. Tenorio.

At least $22.5 million of the total deficit — the highest so far — were due to overspending by agencies and departments, including $10 million by the Office of the Governor.

According to Reyes, the questionable expenses might have been used without authority and the government must take the necessary steps on how it can recover these money to cover partly the ballooning deficit.

He said that it would be difficult for the Tenorio administration amid the deepening financial crisis to meet its obligations to retire the deficit during its first two years in office, which is to end by January 2000.

“We have to put our heads together to identify and come up with some sort of financing scheme to cover them,” Reyes explained. “That’s the only way we can reduce the deficit.”

Northern Marianas is reeling from its worst crisis in years due to the prolonged economic turmoil in Asia, its main source of tourists and investments, that has pulled down government revenues in recent months.

The Ways and Means chairman earlier has suggested bond flotation and barrowing from international investment firms for the NMI government to narrow gap in public spending as against projected income.

Tenorio last month slashed by 13.4 percent or $32.5 million from the 1999 fiscal budget which would mean a cut in the allotment to various departments and agencies, including Public School System, health and law enforcement.

His adminstration is expected to widen the current austerity measures in a bid to prevent huge budgetary shortfall, including proposals to cut by five to 10 percent the salary of nearly 5,000 government employees and reduce their working hours.