The $145.8-million government budget for fiscal year 2016 was officially introduced to members of the House of Representatives at a special session on Rota last week.<\/p>\n
The House Committee on Ways and Means will now start looking at the budget proposal in detail and schedule several hearings.<\/p>\n
Rep. Antonio Sablan (Ind-Saipan), who heads the committee, said the hearings will be tentatively scheduled after the Rota session last Thursday.<\/p>\n
The budget was submitted April 1.<\/p>\n
In an initial review, Sablan said the budget requests of government departments and their respective activities exceeded the $145.8-million proposed budget by $38.7 million, Sablan said.<\/p>\n
This means not all government departments will get the exact budget that they asked for.<\/p>\n
Sablan said his committee will have to sit down with the departments and find out how to \u201chelp\u201d these departments with their budget requests.<\/p>\n
Like previous years, he said it will be a \u201cchallenge\u201d to allocate the available resources, as the departments\u2019 budget requests contain budget for personnel and other \u201cactivities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have to find out which positions are critical and which are not,\u201d he said, adding that departments will also need to identify priorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will also try to look for items that are not necessary and which are not, and from there, maybe make the necessary adjustments on a department\u2019s budget request,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He stressed that once the budget is finalized, the government is bound to \u201cwork\u201d with it.<\/p>\n
Gov. Eloy S. Inos submitted a budget proposal of $145.8 million to the Legislature to beat the April 1 deadline. The budget represents an increase of $11.5 million, or 8.55 percent, from the budget of the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n
The budget was derived from the gross budgetary resources reported by the Secretary of Finance for fiscal year 2016 at $183.55 million.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Joseph Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) earlier said $145.8 million is \u201cbetter than $134 million.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the budget submission deadline on April 1, the government hinted that the fiscal year 2016 budget might be $134 million, the same budget it had for fiscal year 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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