Department of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Macaranas, center, Director of Police Aniceto Ogumoro, right, and Director for Administration Kay Inos, left, listen to Rep. Marissa Flores, back to the camera, during a budget hearing conducted by the House Ways and Means Committee in the House chamber on Tuesday.
DEPARTMENT of Public Safety Commissioner Anthony Macaranas and Director for Administration Kaye Inos told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday that federal funds are helping DPS stay afloat.
Macaranas, Inos, Director of Police Aniceto Ogumoro and DPS Human Resources Director Esther Delos Reyes appeared before the committee for a budget hearing.
Also present was Special Assistant for Management and Budget Vicky Villagomez.
The committee chairman, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul; vice chairman, Rep. Blas Jonathan Attao; and members Reps. Roman Benavente, Marissa Flores, Manny Gregory Castro, Malcolm Omar, Vicente Camacho, Thomas John Manglona, and Joseph Flores were also present.
In his opening statement, Macaranas told the committee that DPS “is staying within the budget submission of the governor.”
For the current fiscal year, DPS has been allotted a $6.5 million budget. For FY 2025, however, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios has proposed a $5.6 million budget for DPS.
According to Macaranas, there is “no budget” for DPS operation, “but we are able to continue to find ways how to sustain some of the services, like the utilities, gas for patrol vehicles, by going through other funding sources.”
Yumul noted that DPS has federal grants and revolving funds “to make up for it,” referring to the lack of local appropriation for operation.
Villagomez, for her part, said, “No one in the central government [received] allocat[ions] for any operating expenses.” The administration, she added, is encouraging DPS to utilize federal programs if it’s allowed by the grantor for expenses that are not accommodated under the general fund.
She noted that in FY 2024, “everybody got a cut across the board,” but the administration has received funds from the U.S. Office of Insular Affairs for law enforcement.
Asked by Yumul how DPS is dealing with its personnel costs, Inos said, “What we are using now is the $250,000 from Compact-Impact [federal funds] and we have a little left over from the one awarded by OIA. We also use our special funds, whatever we have from that.”
A couple of years ago, the CNMI was awarded over $23 million in federal funds, which included $2.6 million in technical assistance for DPS, the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services and other government agencies.
Inos said DPS’ three biggest expenses for operation are fuel and payments to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. and IT&E.
“We are still able to pay that. We started paying it by ourselves [for] four months now, if I’m not mistaken. So we are still able to pay that, and we are still able to stay afloat. For how long, I don’t know,” Inos said.
Macaranas said DPS has 136 vehicles that are operating. Including those that are out of service, they have a total of 152 vehicles, he added.
