Edith Deleon Guerrero
SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero has asked Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita to provide a copy of the general ledger of the CNMI government’s financial transactions.
Deleon Guerrero was making the request under the Open Government Act because based on her review of the financial report for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023, there were “negative expenditures” involving 67 activities and totaling $49.2 million.
According to Deleon Guerrero, the departments, agencies or activities with “major” negative expenditure balances include the following:
1) Homeland Security and Disaster, $11.1 million.
2) Finance, $19.5 million.
3) The retirees’ Group Health, and Life Insurance, $3.1 million.
4) Homeland Security and Disaster, $2.7 million.
5) Department of Public Safety’s Police Saipan, $2.4 million.
6) Revenue and Taxation-Saipan, $1.5 million.
7) Corrections Commissioner, $1.5 million.
8) Emergency Services, $1.1 million.
9) Office of the Governor, $926,000.
In her letter to Norita on Tuesday, the Senate president said she wants to see a copy of the general ledger that shows the financial flow of the transactions that caused the 67 activities to incur a negative expenditure balance.
Additional revenues
Deleon Guerrero said it has also come to her attention that monies were deposited into the general fund, but “were not identified as additional revenues available for supplemental appropriation by the Legislature.”
She cited the governor’s FY2023 annual report indicating, among other things, that $4.7 million was transferred from the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority to the government’s general fund. She said this relates to the surplus funds of the State Small Business Credit Initiative.
Deleon Guerrero said CEDA remitted $4.4 million to the CNMI Treasury on April 10, 2023.
Citing Public Law 3-68 or the Planning and Budgeting Act, the Senate president said it appears that the $4.7 million was additional revenue that should have been reported to the Legislature for supplemental appropriation in 2023.
In addition, Deleon Guerrero said $3.2 million in Medicaid reimbursement was reported in the general fund. She said it appears that this amount was also additional revenue that should have been reported to the Legislature for supplemental appropriation.
“Unless the Legislature recognized the $4.7 million and $3.2 million as additional resources by supplemental appropriation, the Planning and Budgeting Act prohibited the expenditure of such funds for FY 2023. The administration/Finance and the Legislature must collaborate on the annual appropriations acts; but that requires the Department of Finance to be transparent on any, and all revenues received by the CNMI including additional revenues during any fiscal year,” the Senate president said.
