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Babauta convenes newly created accountancy board
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Posted on Oct 19 2004
Gov. Juan N. Babauta will finally convene the CNMI Accountancy Board this Friday to formally introduce its newly appointed members and discuss budgetary concerns.
Babauta, who created the board last December, recently appointed five certified public accountants to the board. They include James Whitt, Rufo Mafnas, David Burger, Dora Inos Deleon Guerrero, and Michael Johnson.
The meeting is set at 10am at the Governor’s conference room on Capitol Hill.
“The governor will convene the meeting since board officers are yet to be elected on that day. Likewise, the governor will be swearing them in,” said governor special assistant for political and regional affairs Bertha Deleon Guerrero.
Appointees to the board are not subject to Senate confirmation.
The board was created following the enactment of the Accountancy Act of 2003 (Public Law 13-052) in May 2003. The measure, introduced by Rep. Oscar Babauta, is anticipated to pave the way for the CNMI to administer the U.S. accountancy examination on island, which could be a lucrative source of revenue for the government and the business sector.
The Office of the Public Auditor and the business community said that forming the board is long overdue, with the CNMI being the last of all the states and territories to establish such a regulatory body.
Among others, the board is expected to formulate rules and regulations, promote the reliability of information used in transactions, accounting, or assessing of financial status or performance of commercial, non-commercial, and government enterprises as well as to provide an economic opportunity for the CNMI by allowing individuals from Asian countries and the Pacific to travel to the CNMI to upgrade their accounting skills by taking the U.S. CPA examination.
