Fitial orders transfer of Passport Office from OAG to Finance

Gov. Benigno R. Fitial issued an executive order transferring the administration and operation of the CNMI Passport Office from the Office of the Attorney General to the Department of Finance to help ensure the program’s operational and administrative efficiency.

Fitial signed executive order 2012-1 on Feb. 6, weeks before issuing another EO which placed the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. under a state of emergency.

However, the Legislature received a copy of the first executive order only on March 8, or a little over a month after it was signed.

Article III Section 15 of the NMI Constitution authorizes the governor to make changes in the allocation of offices, agencies and instrumentalities and their functions and duties that are necessary for efficient administration.

The CNMI Passport Office is currently organized under the OAG’s Division of Immigration, which is no longer a functional element of the OAG.

The Passport Office collects more than $300,000 a year in passport fees. It also processes more than 3,000 passport applications annually.

Fitial said Finance not only has greater expertise in monitoring financial transactions than does OAG, but also has greater experience in the processing of applications than does OAG.

“Now, therefore, to promote efficient administration and operation of the Passport Office, it is hereby ordered: That Attorney General shall relinquish responsibility for the administration and operation of the Passport Office; and the Department of Finance shall assume responsibility for the administration and operation of the Passport Office,” the governor said in his two-page EO.

Pursuant to the Constitution, this plan becomes effective 60 days after submission to the Legislature, unless specifically modified or disapproved by a majority of the members of each house of the Legislature.

However, because the governor signed it on Feb. 6 but a copy was not transmitted to the Legislature until March 8, it’s not readily confirmed whether the effective date would be 60 days after Feb. 6 or 60 days after March 8.

In case it appears to the governor that the interest of economy or efficient management requires that the transfer be delayed beyond the date the plan becomes effective, the governor may, in his discretion, fix a later date. He could also defer such date from time to time.

Reorganizations

The transfer of the Passport Office to Finance is just among the recent reorganizations that the governor has implemented in the past year.

On Dec. 29, Fitial placed the Medicaid Office under the Office of the Governor and away from the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., formalizing what his administration has been saying all along.

On April 27, the governor ordered the transfer of management and control of the Juvenile Detention Unit from the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs to the Department of Corrections.

This was among the recommendations made by the independent Virginia-based firm, Management Analysis Inc., which reviewed both DCCA and the Department of Public Safety.

Lt. Gov. Eloy Inos, in an interview, said the Fitial administration has been considering MAI recommendations. But he said the merger of DPS and the Department of Corrections has been taking longer than expected because of funding issues, among other things. He said transfers of DCCA offices under other agencies are also still under review.