Tracy Norita
A FEUD between Department of Finance officials and a financial system consultant over staff training was brought to the attention of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios.
On Thursday, Davis Erp Consulting’s Shalee M. David, MBA, informed the governor that she was leaving the island on Friday. She said she has “some concerns I’ve observed” during her consulting work with the CNMI government over the past year. These included a lack of support from Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita and Financial Services Manager Ryan Camacho, she added.
In her letter to the governor on March 14, Davis also mentioned the Department of Finance staff’s lack of knowledge to run reports effectively, their lack of proficiency in Munis, Norita’s “minimal knowledge” of Munis and “personality conflicts” that were “hindering the training of staff.”
She said she hoped to be part of a team that could make a difference, but she only met twice with one of DOF’s staff members, “and nothing significant came out of it.”
Davis told the governor that “there was a missed opportunity to do something impactful,” and “if there had been a contract under the governor’s office for me to oversee Munis, we could have achieved a lot.”
Unfortunately, she said, Finance didn’t want to work with her “and even took away my access to Munis. Without this access, she wasn’t able to effectively do her job “so I am forced to accept the realization that my services in the CNMI are not needed.”
“I hope the CNMI government finds a partner to work with, as Munis is a valuable product that can bring benefits if embraced. My best wishes go out to the CNMI government for success in the future. I will always be thankful for the opportunity to have lived on this stunning island,” David said.
Unfortunate
On Monday, March 18, 2024, Finance Secretary Norita issued a memorandum in response to the “feedback” that the governor received from Davis.
Norita said David “confirmed the very issues we inherited in January 2023 and the challenges we continue to face as we find solutions with the limited resources we have.”
Norita said “it is unfortunate that Ms. Davis must leave the island due to not securing a consulting contract with your office to be the sole Munis expert; however, we still maintain the support services of other Munis experts from Tyler-Technologies, the Munis software company that assists thousands of other government offices.”
Norita told the governor that since January 2023, it has been Finance’s priority to train staff on the Munis system, identify and understand its strengths and limitations, and adjust accordingly to respond to the CNMI’s immediate needs and long-term viability.
She said she exercised her authority to make internal changes that required more work, more training, and pooling of resources “that made some uncomfortable; however, it was absolutely necessary to begin the work of restoring the integrity of our financial system and rebuild employee confidence through self-sufficiency.”
She vouched for Financial Services Manager Ryan Camacho who, along with the rest of the department’s leadership, has been instrumental in effectuating this change, she added.
Norita said this shift in priorities meant that her primary support “would be focused on staff not consultants.”
Another important focus, she said, was to identify prior management decisions in the initial implementation that caused severe setbacks in the quality and accuracy of financial data, such as “turning off” the budget controls and failing to “turn them on.”
Norita said Davis “has invaluable historical knowledge” of the implementation of the decisions of former Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig and the department’s management during that period and was sought to assist in making necessary fixes.
“However, the shift in priorities did not align well with Ms. Davis and the difference in personalities and cultures did not ‘fit,’ ” said Norita, who served as director of the Division of Revenue and Taxation under the previous administration,
Norita said the CNMI deserves a Finance office that is self-sufficient, well-trained, and efficient to the furthest extent possible.
“This cannot be done if we continue down the path of over-reliance on consultants to help with even the most basic financial functions in every section of the office. Reliance on a systems consultant to do accounting and financial tasks is costly, inefficient, and a liability to our fiduciary role,” Norita said.
To date, she added, Finance has “seen the capacity of the staff increase as exhibited through troubleshooting system complications, inquiry and reporting analysis productivity, and streamlining processes to utilize system features when appropriate and applicable.”
She said her staff “have come a long way in revamping system processes and making the necessary changes to improve their work.”
However, Norita said, “further training is still needed to take advantage of the powerful features of Munis beyond the current uses.” She said Finance welcomes the support and opportunity to continue to build their knowledge and capabilities.
Unacceptable
In her memorandum, Norita also raised a number of issues against Davis. One of them is “unacceptable staff training.”
She said in January last year, Finance staff “shared deep concerns that they were only given the bare minimum training to do basic functions, but were not trained enough to do all the necessary functions that their job required, forcing many of them to rely on manual solutions until training became available. This left many tasks incomplete.”
Norita said during Davis’s last two weeks as an employee of Finance, her sole task was to transfer knowledge and train key personnel so they could provide the CNMI leadership with legislative reporting and ensure that the IT administrators could maintain system security.
Norita said Davis’s system access was reduced to reflect her change in role from a consultant to a government employee, and then, to a privately contracted consultant whose access must be based on requested work only.
