By Moneth G. Deposa
Variety News Staff

THE Office of Public Auditor says it closed 16, or 20 percent, of the audit recommendations it tracked in the first six months of fiscal year 2006.
From January to June 2006, OPA made a total of 79 audit recommendations of which 16 were closed and 63 remained either open or resolved.
Of the 63 open or resolved recommendations, 33 were considered delinquent.
An open recommendation is one where no action or plan of action has been made or no time frame for the plan has been provided by the agency or department.
A resolved recommendation is one in which OPA is satisfied that the client cannot take immediate action but has established a reasonable plan and time frame for action.
Based on OPA’s report, closed recommendations, where a client has taken sufficient action to meet the intent of the recommendation, increased from five in 2005 to 16 as of June 30, 2006.
The number of delinquent recommendations decreased by 28 percent.
A recommendation is said to be delinquent if it has been outstanding for at least 180 days and OPA has not been informed by the concerned agency or department of any action being taken to close the recommendation.
OPA attributed these “positive results” to the efforts of the governor’s office, particularly the special legal counsel to the governor, for its initiative in encouraging agencies to respond to OPA on their delinquent recommendations.
“The initiative taken by the governor’s office has resulted in the closure of recommendations as well as the decrease of delinquent recommendations,” the OPA report stated.
Of the 16 closed recommendations, 11 were closed because the agencies either implemented OPA’s recommendations, drafted policies and procedures, or issued memoranda and directives in order to reemphasize the need to comply with the existing regulations.
OPA said it also closed three recommendations due to expenditure accounts earlier reviewed by OPA being closed and no longer authorized, or programs canceled by the grantor agency making the recommendations earlier issued as inapplicable.
OPA said it included in the tracking report 106 recommendations in eight recent audit reports issued by private accounting firms under contract by OPA.
Recommendations in these eight audit reports identified potential recoveries due to unpaid land leases, uncollected labor processing fees, overpayments in professional services contracts and retirement benefits, and improper expenditure of public funds.
OPA said the initial actions by agencies as of June 30, 2006 resulted in the partial recovery of $950,289.
Approximately $6.4 million is potentially recoverable by the CNMI government, according to OPA.