Reyes: No additional funding for DPS

Rep. Karl T. Reyes, chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, yesterday ruled out any increase in the budget appropriation for the Department of Public Safety, saying they may provide flexibility to the administration to juggle government resources to accommodate its needs.

“With the limited amount of funding this time, we will probably want to give a greater flexibility to the governor in reprogramming some of the funds from one category to another,” he said in an interview after the budget hearing on DPS.

This will also allow leeway for agencies and departments to use lapse funds within their respective organization which they can use to meet their needs for FY 2000.

Citing that DPS lacks fuel to run police cars to patrol villages on the island and provisions for inmates at the correctional facilities, Reyes said the committee will try to address those critical areas when they make recommendation on the $13.2 million budget of the department.

“It is just hard (to increase the budget) because (the money) is not there, so we will provide them something to allow them to work efficiently,” the representative added.

But he raised the possibility of slashing the personnel costs of police officers and other DPS employees to funnel into its operations as he noted that the funding for its salaries and wages for the next fiscal year is higher than the FY 1999 level.

Reyes maintained that if they are allowed to reprogram their cash resources, then they can take cuts from personnel expenses to maintain the previous level and fund the operations of the department.

He added that while other departments have suffered more cuts under the proposed FY 2000 budget package as compared to last year’s appropriation, DPS has had to deal with only eight percent reduction.

“This cut is reasonable based on the reduction of total revenues (of the Commonwealth),” he explained, “but again I always go back to that reprogramming authority that they can utilize if they don’t fill in some of the positions and use it for food and fuel.”

There will be no funding increase for DPS, according to the Ways and Means chairman, but it is likely that the committee will recommend to place the department under an administrative provision to give critical agencies more flexibility in handling their financial affairs.