THE House Ways and Means Committee may not be able to address the Department of Public Safety’s request for more funding because DPS Commissioner Robert A. Guerrero has not appeared before the panel.
In a budget hearing last month, DPS Administrative Director Kaye Inos presented a $9.2 million budget request for fiscal year 2022.
This is over $1 million more than the $7.79 million proposed by Gov. Ralph DLG Torres for DPS in his revised budget submission on July 1, 2021.
Of the amount proposed by the Republican governor, $4.93 million will be allocated from local revenue while $2.85 million will come from the American Rescue Plan Act funds provided to the CNMI.
Inos told the House committee that DPS has 250 employees, mostly police officers.
The committee chairman, Rep. Donald Manglona, said he and the other members had questions that only the DPS commissioner could answer.
In an interview on Wednesday, Manglona said due to Guerrero’s unwillingness to appear before his committee, they may work on a DPS budget based on what was presented by Inos and other DPS officials last month.
Manglona, an independent aligned with the Democrats, said, “There are certain activities in DPS that may be underfunded or the committee has certain questions about, especially on overtime expenses that DPS has been incurring every fiscal year.”
He added, “We believe DPS has additional requests. So it’s up to the members whether or not to consider those requests even though they did not get the answers to their questions.”
Guerrero said he could not attend the budget hearing last month because he had to be on Tinian on official business.
He also could not attend a rescheduled budget hearing because he said he was on medical leave.
This prompted Democrat Rep. Celina R. Babauta to propose a $1 salary for Guerrero.
Manglona, for his part, said there might be a need to summon Guerrero.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Donald Manglona presides over a recent meeting in the House chamber.
