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Key agencies miss deadline for audit
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Posted on Jul 14 2008
Several key government agencies failed to meet a deadline for providing financial data to auditors for a newly released report on the state of the Commonwealth government’s finances, a factor that calls into question the report’s findings.
According to the report, released Monday by the CNMI Office of the Public Auditor, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the NMIs Retirement Fund, the Commonwealth Development Authority, and the local public school system did not submit financial statements for the report. The deadline for the submitting the statements passed on June 30, 2007, OPA chief Michael Sablan said in an interview.
“This is a serious problem,” said Sablan. “These are some of the most critical agencies in the CNMI’s government. They are not just important, but they also play a big part in the government’s overall financial condition.”
A key consequence of the agencies’ failure to submit those statements, he added, is that the information contained in OPA’s new report on their finances has seen “no independent verification” to determine whether it is correct.
Sablan said OPA is preparing to meet with officials in each of the agencies to learn why they did not submit the statements.
Officials with most of the agencies at issue in the report were unavailable for comment or could not be reached at press time. However, Mark Aguon, administrator of NMIRF, said his office did submit the information required well ahead of the deadline. OPA officials, however, did not accept it because the statement was not properly bound.
