By Bernadette H. Carreon
Horizon news staff

A standoff between President Remengesau and Congress has resulted to a failure to put a budget appropriation in place.
Their differences over what should go and should not go into the budget only resulted to one thing, a government which cannot operate because of lack of funding operations.
A government shutdown would most likely occur. Because there is no law that allows it to spend money, it could not release money to fund certain services of the government. The first to be affected is the national government employees who will not be compensated. The president and lawmakers are not spared from this, because they too are government workers.
Attached with the president’s veto message sent to the OEK leaders on New Year’s Eve was a memorandum asking government workers to work on a voluntary basis until further notice or at least until the impasse is resolved and a budget is finally approved.
Vendors cannot be paid by the government; important government projects which are lined up for 2007 cannot start. The government will not function without the budget authority.
The impasse between the president and Congress complicated the budget process. Last year a continuing resolution had to be passed to avert a shutdown, because of yet differences over the budget, this time both parties were not fast enough and for the first time, Palau has no budget in place.
On Dec. 28, President Remengesau vetoed the OEK version of the budget bill, the Senate unanimously voted to override the president; the House of Delegates however did not have enough votes to override thus killing the budget bill.
The OEK then passed the same bill which was disapproved by the president, again Remengesau rejected it.
The budget process had become a battle between the Executive Branch and the OEK, a battle which both apparently lost, because it affected the entire nation and the government employees who had nothing to do with political bickering.
I believe Government employees and other sectors that will be affected by the lack of funding authority should not be made to pay the price for difficulties in resolving political differences.
No matter how legitimate these differences might be, it is not enough to allow a government shutdown.
We can only hope that the there will be no further delays in the budget process, the soonest, the politicians set aside their differences, the less economic implications it is to the country.
President Remengesau in his veto message is right, "this is not a competition where one side wins and the other loses."
He added in his veto message, "as elected officials we were chosen by the people to work together to move our country forward. When in the course of negotiations we chose to argue rather than talk-to fight rather than negotiate-we all lose. And it is the people of our nation who bear the consequences of that failure."
A government that cannot function because of lack of funding appropriation is a serious matter which needs a swift resolution.
I believe that the OEK and the Executive Branch will not further put the country in dire situation because in the end their good sense of responsibility to the people that elected them will prevail.