INDEPENDENT Rep. John Paul Sablan on Monday said there is “no way” Republican Gov. Ralph DLG Torres can give an accurate State of the Commonwealth Address without a CNMI financial audit report.
Prior to the roll call vote on House Joint Resolution 22-18, which calls for a joint session to receive the governor’s SOCA on Dec. 1 in the House chamber, Sablan expressed concern about the delay in the CNMI financial audits for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.
He said he supports H.J.R. 22-18 because it makes “sense” to wait until Dec. 1, when, “hopefully,” the CNMI financial audit has already been finalized as promised by Department of Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig.
The House adopted H.J.R. 22-18 by a vote of 15 to 5. The four Republican members and one Independent member who caucuses with the Republicans voted no. The Democrats and the Independents who do not support the governor voted yes.
Sablan, who is a supporter of the Independent gubernatorial tandem of Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Saipan Mayor David M. Apatang, said the governor has repeatedly “disregarded” the functions of the Legislature.
“These are very important audits that should have been finalized months ago. So if we are going to argue about the date of [the] SOCA, I think it is only fair that Dec. 1 would be more accurate to deliver his address so he has time to allow Finance to finalize the financial audit report so that he, the governor, can deliver an accurate SOCA,” Sablan said.
The Democratic candidate for governor, Rep. Tina Sablan, agreed, saying that the CNMI government is two years behind the single audit for FY 2020, adding that Finance has not begun the audit for the past fiscal year.
She doubts if the governor can deliver a SOCA without critical financial information.
Democratic Rep. Edwin Propst said the CNMI financial audit report is very important “for all of us to see,” so that the people will understand the financial crisis that is looming once the Commonwealth runs out of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Disrespectful
Independent Rep. Corina Magofna said the governor “thinks he is above the law,” and “has no respect whatsoever for the law of the land.”
She said the governor should not have announced that he would deliver his SOCA — or “whatever he wants to call it” — on Oct. 21 only to reschedule it for Oct. 31.
She said the governor’s rescheduling the SOCA and designating the venue himself “is really a huge disrespect” to “the Legislature and the people.”
Question
House Minority Leader Demapan, a Republican, asked Independent House Floor Leader Ralph N. Yumul, the author of H.J.R. 22-18, how he came up with Dec. 1 as the proposed date for the governor’s SOCA.
Yumul said the Commonwealth Election Commission will use both the House chamber and the multi-purpose center, which the House leadership “strongly believe are the proper venues for the SOCA and more accessible to the members of the public,” but both venues won’t be available until after the November election.
Rep. Tina Sablan said delivering SOCA on the day before the early-voting starts “appears to be like a campaign event.”
She said the House leadership came up with a Dec. 1 date for the SOCA “because of the obvious appearance of impropriety” in the governor’s plan to deliver it before the election. It is “politicking on taxpayers’ dime,” she said, adding that the motivation for calling a SOCA in the eleventh hour is very obvious.
“I would strongly urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to not be complicit on that,” Rep. Tina Sablan said. If the Senate leadership wants to be complicit, it is their call, she added.
There won’t be a joint session, but the governor can submit his report in writing as he has apparently done in the past years, she said.
The governor said he will deliver his SOCA on Oct. 31 at Kensington Hotel.
