DPS received $765K reprogrammed funds
The Babauta administration had reprogrammed an estimated $765,000 to the Department of Public Safety during the seven-month period of fiscal year 2004 to help the agency in its various programs.
In a report by the Finance Department, it was shown that, of the $765,000 reprogrammed funds to the police department, $250,000 came from the Marianas Visitors Authority and $515,000 came from the Department of Public Works.
Among all departments, DPS received the largest amount of reprogrammed funds from other departments.
Despite this, the department still incurred $905,543 in shortfall as of April 30, 2004, the report added.
Aside from the DPS, the Department of Public Health also incurred $3.2 million shortfall during the first seven months of FY2004 while $2.4 million is still needed to settle the utility bills of the government.
The report added that the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs released $5,000 to help the CNMI Language Commission while the Labor Department released $72,978 to the Attorney General’s Office. The MVA released $640,000 from its budget and reprogrammed $393,6530 to the Department of Lands and Natural Resources and $250,000 to the DPS.
The DPW released $714,500, which was transferred to the DPS and to the Governor’s Office.
Also, the Finance Department projected that by June 30, 2004, DCCA would still have $368,625; Labor would have $398,849; DLNR would have 252,011; Commerce would have $132,049; DoF would have $598,839; DPW would have $892,256; AGO would have $322,750, and the Governor’s Office would have $458,357—a total of $3.42 million in available funds.
Of these departments, DCCA, Labor, Finance, DPW, and the Governor’s Office would increase their funding availability.
On Tuesday, the Babauta administration disclosed that it has a total of $4.3 million in excess funds as of April 30, 2004, belying reports that it would not meet projected revenue in Fiscal Year 2005 as proposed on its $226 million budget appropriation for FY2005.
In line with this, Gov. Juan N. Babauta continue to seek the help of all government agencies and departments to help him implement stricter austerity measures so that the government would not exceed the $213.6 million budget set for FY2004.
Based on the report, the CNMI government hopes to collect an estimated $218.1 million in FY2004, a slight increase compared with revenue sources in FY2003, which amounted to only $213.6 million.
As of April 30, 2004, the CNMI government has collected $118.7 million—an 0.8 percent increase from the $118.6 million in total collection posted during the same seven-month figure in 2003.
