On Thursday, Sen. Maria T. Pangelinan said she and other lawmakers met with administration officials “and both sides appear willing to work together and cooperate.”
Pangelinan, D-Saipan, said she also asked her House counterpart, Ways and Means Chairman Ray N. Yumul, R-Saipan, that they work together in reviewing the measure.
The proposed $150.5 million budget is $2.4 million more than the government’s current spending limit of $148 million, but Pangelinan said this doesn’t meant that there will be more money for FY 2010, which starts on Oct. 1, 2009.
“According to [Finance Secretary] Eloy [Inos] there’s this outside fund for FY 2009 that evidently we didn’t appropriate and so that $1 million was included in the FY 2010 budget — it will go to Retirement Fund or to the local Immigration employees whose salaries were appropriated only for May 31st or to Aetna which we owe $113,000.”
Aetna manages the government’s health care plan for its employees.
“I need to re-verify the number of [government] employees,” Pangelinan said. “My computation for [the CNMI Division of] Immigration based on the FY 2009 budget is that we need $597,000, but the administration’s estimate is $400,000 because a lot of employees have left already.”
She said the government doesn’t have a “clear picture of where we’re heading” financially in FY 2010.
“We’re not mapping out the process so we can have a trail, and that’s my problem. I told Eloy, ‘Why don’t we just say as of April 1 these are the FY 2009 funds that have not been spent yet and this is the amount we have spent so now let’s work on how we can sustain the government with the remaining balance from April 1 to Sept. 30.’ ”
Pangelinan said the budget cannot be balanced if the administration will not report “everything needed to balance the budget.”
She noted, however, that the administration submitted the FY 2010 on April 1 as mandated by law.
“And they met with us to discuss their proposal so that’s a sign of goodwill and I believe we can all sit down again and start the discussions.”
Pangelinan said she will look into the governor’s proposed austerity measures, “check their projected savings and confirm these with Finance.”
“We will also compare the 2009 and 2010 budgets, the number of employees and their salaries. Right now, we don’t even agree on the actual number of local Immigration employees.”
A thorough review of the budget, she added, will take a lot of time.
“I’ve already asked the House Ways and Means chairman that we need to work together in reviewing the budget bill. Me and my staff have a program in place and all we need is the electronic copy of the bill.”
Pangelinan said her office will once again contact all government departments, agencies, offices and programs to verify their actual number of employees and their payroll expenses.
“We want to make sure there are no ‘cut and paste’ figures again. It’s a matter of getting the right information.”
