‘Being politically correct has no place after inauguration’

Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero

The word war between Senate President Edith E. DeLeon Guerrero (D-Saipan) and Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita appears to be heating up, with the senator reminding Norita the election is over and being politically correct has no place after the inauguration.

“This government belongs to the people. We preached rebuilding trust, transparency, and accountability. The override was not an exercise in futility,” said DeLeon Guerrero in response to Saipan Tribune’s request for comments about Norita’s letter to her about the American Rescue Plan Act issue.

DeLeon Guerrero said the $93 million ARPA as stated by Norita in the letter Tuesday as budgetary versus cash is misleading.

DeLeon Guerrero pointed out that ARPA is actual fiat currency and the ARPA sheet provided is an ARPA fund balance, not a budgetary balance nor is it a projected revenue.

She said this means the $93 million should reconcile with the cash in the bank as of the May 31, 2023, ARPA fund balance sheet.

The president said the $24 million as reported in Norita’s letter is the ARPA cash book balance.

At this point, she said, because this is actual fiat currency from the U.S. Treasury, the difference between $93 million and $24 million is $69 million.

“Theoretically, the $69 million should still be in [the] bank,” DeLeon Guerrero said.

She said definition of a fund balance is limitations of available resources to be reported in a fund balance, here being the ARPA fund balance sheet.

The president said the Senate fiscal response team’s main purpose is to fasttrack the work and review of fiscal year 2023 budget, hence the passage of the modified fiscal year 2023 budget.

DeLeon Guerrero cited two reasons why the ARPA override was important.

First, she said, the Palacios-Apatang administration had no objection upon taking office to the participation of the Legislature. Second is because there is no supporting ARPA financial statement to give the Legislature a true picture of the ARPA bank balance and ARPA fund balance. She said there is a longstanding list of financial reports that her office has requested.

In fact, DeLeon Guerrero said, she gave Norita a hard copy of the pending reports list during their meeting at her office with the Senate Federal Emergency Management Community Disaster Loan Special Committee, as a reminder that they are still waiting for them.

The Senate president said it’s enough that they are still patiently waiting for the reports six months to date, but with a Munis Financial Management Information System “read only” access veto, this is just putting them in total darkness.

“Why, when the access was granted back in January 2023. Just maybe because we might find the $93 million checking account the governor is wondering about,” DeLeon Guerrero said.

Since the beginning, when they all took office, DeLeon Guerrero said she has recommended to the administration to leverage the CNMI’s client relation with its financial deposit institution for a Line of Credit on an as-needed basis.

Recently at an informal meeting with herself, the Marianas Public Land Trust, Palacios, House Speaker Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), and House legal counsel Joseph Taijeron, she said she specifically asked MPLT to consider restructuring the 7.5% interest rate of the CNMI’s outstanding note of $10 million of the original $15 million that was borrowed to pay Typhoon Yutu vendors.