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‘What broken promise?’
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Posted on Feb 07 2005
Department of Finance Secretary Fermin M. Atalig is at a loss as to what guarantee he had broken as alleged by the Public School System Commissioner of Education Rita H. Inos in a letter sent to the Governor’s Office last week.
“I am amazed as to what promise I did not fulfill,” he said in his letter of response to Inos. He further said that the only promise he made was indicated in his letter to PSS last Jan. 7, “Which I have fulfilled.”
Atalig sent a letter to PSS on that said date assuring the remittance of PSS’ payroll period No.1 and the transfer of funds to cover all periods in arrears of PSS on or before Jan. 31.
“If I didn’t, we would have had a payless payday for PSS employees,” he stated in the latter.
PSS “all others” funds were also mentioned in his letter to Inos. He said that PSS director of finance Richard Waldo has been meeting with DoF staff Connie Salas and the CNMI Treasurer to resolve the discrepancies with the actual amount the DoF needs to transfer to PSS.
Atalig further explained that the discrepancy is a “result of the local funds used to compensate federally funded PSS employees during the period when PSS was placed at high risk status by the U.S. Department of Education.
The DoF secretary further said in his letter that as soon as both offices finalize the amount of the funds to be transferred, his office will remit the funds accordingly.
“And that funds can be used as part of ‘all others’ transfer,” he said in the letter. He also assured PSS that they would continue transferring funds to fulfill PSS’ promises to vendors.
PSS board member Herman T. Guerrero recently made a statement that the deadline DoF set was just one of the government’s broken promises and said that the government is only making the assurance because of the upcoming elections.
