79 govt officials face $10 daily fine over non-filing of financial statement

One elected official are among the 79 government officials now facing a $10 daily fine for failing to meet the May 31 deadline to file their 2010 statement of financial interest with the Office of the Public Auditor.

For every single day that the financial statement is not filed, each of the late filers will be charged an additional $10.

By today, that penalty is already $60 and will continue to increase until the day of the filing.

Public auditor Michael Pai said during the weekend that of the 391 government officials required to file a statement of financial interest, “only 312 filed on or before May 31st and 79 have not filed their Statement.”

“Of the 79, one elected official has not filed a Statement. OPA urges all individuals required to file a Statement to do so as soon as possible. A penalty of $10 per day will be charged to late/non-filers beginning June 1, 2011,” Pai said in a response to Saipan Tribune’s email inquiry.

The public auditor, however, did not disclose the identity of the elected official who is among the non-filers.

In late April to early May, the Department of Finance secretary initially certified 348 government officials as among those required to file a statement of financial interest.

But the public auditor said Finance has since certified an additional 43 reporting individuals, bringing the total number of required filers to 391.

The 79 late filers comprised 20 percent of the total number of required filers, and the other 80 percent beat the final deadline of May 31.

The initial deadline to file was May 2. However, there’s a 30-day grace period before a daily fine is imposed.

Of the 348 original number of required filers, 84 officials—including six elected—failed to file by May 2.

Under 1 CMC Section 8511 of the Government Ethics Code Act, all elected and appointed Commonwealth officials, judicial officers, and executive department heads or directors are required to file a Statement of Financial Interest.

The statement includes government officials’ income, and financial interests in real estate, among other things.

Unlike many other jurisdictions, CNMI law does not make public financial statements. The assets and liabilities of elected officials are not readily available for public inspection. OPA can only release the documents with consent from the filer.