House Local Bill 17-33, the mayor noted, grants expenditure authority to the Department of Finance secretary.
Flores said SHEFA is statutorily placed within the mayor’s office.
He said he has noticed unreasonable delay in disbursing financial assistance awards to SHEFA recipients who are studying in the CNMI or abroad.
But Flores said there’s no assurance that the disbursement of financial assistance will not be delayed if the board is given the expenditure authority.
However, he said, giving the SHEFA board expenditure authority is much better than the setup created by current law.
“It makes no sense to grant expenditure authority to another when the board actually makes the call as to who is eligible to receive financial assistance,” he told members of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation.
Flores strongly believes that the current setup is inefficient.
“Bureaucracy should be cut out from a program like SHEFA for an efficient administration of the program,” he added.
House Local Bill 17-33 proposes to appropriate $3,260,000 for the third senatorial district, which is Saipan.
Of the total amount, $3 million is for SHEFA program and $100,000 is for SHEFA operations.
The bill states that the Department of Finance secretary will regulate and control the expenditure of the funds to ensure that appropriated funds are not expended contrary to law.
Flores said this is a “meaningless provision” because it will be difficult for the Finance secretary to enforce it.
“By requiring the expenditure authority to enforce, there is really no oversight or supervisory check that it is being complied with,” the mayor said.
He said granting the SHEFA board the expenditure authority will ensure that the Finance secretary to remain impartial and the provision is “faithfully enforced.”
