During Tuesday’s hearing on Tinian’s fiscal year 2011 budget in the Tinian Elementary School’s cafeteria, Quichocho asserted his authority, saying that the mayor’s office should be allowed to control funds of public programs only.
Quichocho said he wants the commission to regain its status as an autonomous agency of government not subject to the control of the CNMI government and not part of the mayor’s office.
He said local revenue collected pursuant to the Revised Tinian Casino Act should primarily support the commission.
The mayor’s office, he added, can administer the remainder of such funds, if there’s any.
Quichocho said language in the budget indicating that the mayor is the expenditure authority with the right to review the expenses of the commission should be deleted.
The expenditure of commission funds , he added, should be subject only to the “certification” of the Tinian municipal treasurer.
Quichocho said it is also the commission that should reprogram its funds, not the mayor.
He told the members of the Tinian legislative delegation that due to a lack of quorum, the commission cannot carry out its legal responsibilities and can only come up with an unofficial budget projection.
Three of the commission’s five seats are vacant.
The commission’s unofficial submission totals $1.5 million. Of this amount, $1.1 million goes to the commission’s administration, the biggest chunk of which goes to personnel.
The commission itself gets $390,682 of which $386,000 goes to personnel.
Senate Vice President Jude U. Hofschneider, R-Tinian and chairman of the island’s delegation, noted that the mayor’s proposed budget for his public programs and municipal treasurer is more than $1.6 million.
If the commission will request for $1.5 million, the total budget amount will be over $3.1 million.
The projected revenue is $2.3 million only.
The challenge now, Hofschneider said, is to decide how to fund the public programs, the commission and the municipal treasurer.
