The Office of the Public Auditor’s recommendations are classified as either open, resolved, or closed.
It also classifies recommendations as delinquent if the recommendation has been outstanding for at least 180 days and OPA has not been informed by the concerned agency or department of any action being taken to close the recommendations.
In its annual report for FY 2007, OPA recorded 46 delinquent recommendations in 2005; 47 in FY 2006; and 30 in FY 2007.
Agencies with delinquent recommendations as of Dec. 31, 2007 included the Department of Finance, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the Department of Public Lands, the Department of Public Safety, the Marianas Visitors Authority, Northern Marianas College, the Retirement Fund, and the Public School System.
Sablan, in the report, said OPA closed 11 of the 60 recommendations it tracked in 2007.
For 2005, OPA tracked 84 audit recommendations and 79 in FY 2006.
OPA’s recommendations in eight audit reports also identified potential recoveries from unpaid rentals of land leases, uncollected labor processing fees, overpayments in professional services contracts and retirement benefits, and improper expenditures of public funds.
OPA said of $4.6 million can be recovered by the CNMI government from various agencies that unwisely spent taxpayers’ money.
However, OPA said only $950,289 has been recovered, leaving a balance of $3.7 million as of Dec. 31, 2007.
