SENATE Vice President Justo S. Quitugua on Monday prefiled Senate Legislative Initiative 22-9 to allow the Department of Public Lands to spend land lease revenue on homestead projects.
A legislative initiative is a proposal to amend the CNMI Constitution. It must be passed by three-fourths of the members of each house present and voting. The governor cannot veto a legislative initiative, but it must be approved by voters themselves.
S.L.I 22-9 will allow DPL to “receive all monies including, but not limited to, rentals, fees, penalties, and court judgments derived from the public lands except those from lands in which freehold interest has been transferred to another agency of government…and shall transfer these monies after the end of the fiscal year to the Marianas Public Land Trust, except that the department shall retain the amount necessary to meet reasonable expenses of administration and management as provided by law: land surveying, homestead development and infrastructure including water and power, and any other expenses reasonably necessary for the accomplishment of its functions.”
S.L.I 22-9 will also mandate that the annual budget of the department “shall only be expended for DPL and shall not be comingled with the general fund.” Moreover, the DPL budget “shall not be reprogrammed for any other purposes including calamities and disasters pursuant to emergency declarations.”
The legislative initiative will likewise require DPL to submit to the Legislature, for approval and appropriation, its annual budget. Currently, DPL submits its proposed annual budget to the Legislature for information purposes only.
S.L.I 22-9 states that DPL should be “more fiscally transparent and accountable for its reasonable expenses of administration and management.”
“In order to prevent DPL from running amok with its administrative and management expenses, the Legislature should provide by law and clarify what are reasonable expenses of [administration] and management. Moreover, in order to prevent DPL from inflating its annual budget and unduly withholding any surplus revenues from MPLT, it is necessary for the Legislature to approve DPL’s annual budget to ensure that DPL’s annual budget complements the department’s actual personnel and operation requirements each fiscal year,” S.L.I. 22-9 stated.
Justo Quitugua
