OPA offers budget that’s 3% less than previous year

Unlike most agencies asking for more funding, the Office of the Public Auditor is proposing a fiscal year 2013 budget that’s 3 percent less than its previous year’s budget.

Public auditor Michael Pai said OPA is submitting a 2013 budget of $2,100,400, which is 3 percent less than the 2012 budget of $2,164,700.

“OPA believes that it has trimmed its spending to the maximum and any further cuts would hamper its operations,” Pai said in a Feb. 29 letter to Virginia Villagomez, the governor’s special assistant for management and budget.

Villagomez gave agencies until Feb. 29 to submit their budget requests with the Office of Management and Budget, to be able to prepare the governor’s budget submission to the Legislature on or before the April 1 deadline.

Pai said OPA has been fully aware of the CNMI’s worsening financial condition due to the bad economy, so it has reviewed its spending plan and further cut expenses in areas that are not critical to fulfilling its mandates.

“During the past two fiscal years, OPA significantly reduced its budget by cutting personnel by almost 50 percent and by budgeting only necessary non-personnel costs,” Pai said in his letter, copies of which were also provided to Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota), House Speaker Eli Cabrera (R-Saipan), House minority leader Joseph Deleon Guerrero (R-Saipan), and Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson.

Of the $2.1 million proposed budget, over $1.4 million will be for personnel costs. The number of positions covered by this budget is 27.

Another $487,300 will be for professional services, while $19,800 will be for office expenses and $12,800 will be for rentals, mainly vehicle rentals.

Travel budget is $39,300, including for investigations, audits and ethics presentations on Rota and Tinian, as well as attendance at the Association of Pacific Island Public Auditors Annual Conference in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

Pai said OPA will apply for a training grant with the U.S. Department of the Interior for FY 2013. If approved, these travel costs to American Samoa will be charged to the grant.

OPA’s duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to conducting audits of public funds, handling all appeals of decisions made by the Procurement and Supply director in connection with any protest in the solicitation and award of a contract, enforcement of the Government Ethics Code Act, and enforcement of the campaign finance disclosure provisions of the Northern Mariana Islands Election Law.

Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos, in a separate interview, said based on the agency budget submissions as of Feb. 29, it’s still pretty much hard to determine the total amount requested by all agencies but for sure, they have exceeded the projected ceiling of $102 million for FY 2013 which is the same level as the 2012 budget.

“The budget call is basically for no more than the current level. It takes into account the austerity measures,” he added.

Inos and budget analysts will be meeting with individual agency heads and directors in the next few days to discuss about the agencies’ budget submissions and federal funds, barely a few weeks before the April 1 deadline for the Executive Branch to submit a budget to the Legislature.