Sablan's appointment as public auditor
The Issue: The appointment of Mr. Mike Sablan as the CNMI’s public auditor.
Our View: Sablan has his work cut out for him especially on graft and corruption.
We can’t over emphasize the importance of the role of the public auditor in ascertaining accountability of public funds, specifically, critical reviews of how hard-earned taxpayers’ contributions are spent by public officials as mandated by law.
Indeed, there are cases still under litigation of how taxpayers money have been abused by unscrupulous government managers. It includes such violations as mismanagement of petty cash that balloons to thousands of dollars in losses, embezzlement, unearned overtime pay, wrongful disposition of funds beyond lawful mandates, among others.
It seems that to this day, accountability is a foreign term for government managers as to make graft and corruption a difficult task to weed out of people assigned by law to prudently dispose of taxpayers contributions. It’s a loss of public funds right smack at the middle of an economic crisis that is fueled by serious decline in revenue generation.
It’s a tough job for anyone appointed to the post given that ocular review of how public funds are spent often involves political appointees or elected officials. But we are confident that Mr. Sablan would shove aside local politics and buckle down to the constitutional mandate of the office to ensure accountability of public funds. Yes, critical audits often involves people we know of very well. But without our saying so, the job must be done.
Mr. Sablan is a man of integrity and professionalism. We congratulate him for his appointment, and we thank the Senate for its swift confirmation to allow the new public auditor begin putting in place plans to strengthen accountability of hard-to-come-by public funds. Si Yuus Maase`!
