Previous Story
Budget bill sets strict reporting rules
|
Posted on Dec 10 2008
Government agencies must comply with strict reporting requirements under the appropriation bill passed by the Legislature.
The proposed legislation requires government entities, including autonomous agencies, to submit quarterly reports to the Legislature on their spending for personnel and operations, as well as payments of the public auditor’s fee.
The provision is designed to help the Legislature perform its oversight responsibility.
The public auditor’s fee was included in the reporting requirement in the wake of some government agencies’ failure to contribute, as required, 1 percent of their appropriation to the operating budget of the Office of the Public Auditor.
According to the Department of Finance, at least $2 million of assessments against autonomous agencies have remained unpaid. Finance Secretary Eloy S. Inos said a system of intercept or offset should be put in place to ensure the assessment against independent agencies are paid.
He also called “archaic and unconventional” the procedure for assessing and accounting for the OPA fee that currently applies to the central government.
“A straightforward procedure would be to appropriate the 1-percent funding requirement for the OPA would be appropriated from general revenues, rather than appropriating the budgetary needs of the individual activities and then deducting 1 percent from those individual appropriations,” Inos said.
He noted that the agencies do not get the 1 percent allowance in their budget to cover the OPA assessment.
