‘$6.4M misused funds recoverable’

The CNMI government may recover misused public funds amounting up to $6.4 million if the Attorney General’s Office succeeds in pursuing legal action and if other agencies comply with recommendations by the Office of the Public Auditor.

According to an audit recommendations tracking report issued by OPA on Friday, AGO action is needed for the recovery of approximately $2.7 million improperly expended by various government agencies.

This includes amounts recoverable from 11 audit reports referred to the AGO for legal action. The oldest of these reports dated from as far back as 1995.

About $1.13 million is recoverable from the Tinian Casino Gaming Control Commission for overpayment of a consultant, breach of fiduciary trust by three commission officials, and outstanding travel transactions.

Another $1.3 million is made up of overpayments of professional services contracts by the CNMI government.

The remaining amount is recoverable from the departments of Public Works, Finance, and Public Health, Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, Marianas Public Lands Authority, and Commonwealth Ports Authority. The cases involve improper payments to contractors or board members, travel and per diem overpayments, non-collection of rentals or lease payments, or funds misuse by agency officials.

Responding to OPA’s request for an update on the referred recommendations, the AGO reportedly said that it had requested information on one of the cases from Finance regarding payments to the Gaming Commission and other entities. The AGO also informed OPA that there had been no changes to nine of the referral cases and AGO has yet to locate the original file in another one of the referral cases.

Meanwhile, recommendations in nine audit reports identified $3.7 million potential recoveries due to unpaid rentals of land leases, uncollected labor processing fees, overpayments in professional services contracts and retirement benefits, and improper expenditures of public funds.

About $2.85 million is due from MPLA, which failed to collect rentals from eight quarry operators from 1990 to 1995. The unpaid rentals originally totaled $4.69 million. However, $946,968 has been written off for one bankrupt quarry operator, while another $892,859 has been recovered from the seven other operators.

Another $115,862 is recoverable from MPLA for double payment of travel expenses and overpaid per diem allowances to former board members for the period between September 1992 and September 1994.

Furthermore, the Department of Labor has yet to recover $512,410 in unpaid nonresident worker application fees from two companies.

The Retirement Fund has yet to collect $126,730 from CPA for improper payments to two former CPA officials for retirement benefits and compensatory time claimed.

The other amounts are recoverable from the CNMI government, Department of Finance, Washington Representative’s Office, and the Attorney General Investigative Unit.

The OPA tracking report covers audit recommendations issued as of June 30, 2005.