The Department of Finance is looking at hiring and training more people for the enforcement of CNMI tax laws, ultimately increasing efficiency.<\/p>\n
During Friday\u2019s budget hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Finance Department asked for a budget of $5.4 million in fiscal year 2018\u2014about the same amount as the governor\u2019s proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked a lot about our enforcement plans and [hiring], because we are finally almost fully staffed,\u201d said Secretary Larissa Larson, adding that the department has been understaffed for quite some time.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, with the new staff coming on board, you are going to see a new efficiency out of us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Larson plans to hire key positions for the department, including a legal counsel\u2014which baffled committee members, as they asked why the department not put it under the attorney general\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need technical expertise when it comes to legal issues regarding tax. That is one of the issues that we resolved by bringing [in additional people],\u201d said Larson. <\/p>\n
Another key position Larson mentioned was the hiring of a director for Revenue and Taxation, a position that has been vacant for over five years. Qualifications for the position has been a constant issue, as Larson said it was more feasible to work in the private sector with those qualifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a special person because when you\u2019re in that division, you are also going after family and friends,\u201d said Larson, adding that the future director of Revenue and Taxation must be strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a culture like ours where we are very family-oriented, sometimes it is not that easy,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Either way, Larson assured that the department is working on \u201ctraining and developing staff\u201d because Larson believes the more they develop their staff, the more efficient the department would be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is never very efficient, but we\u2019d like to be as efficient as possible,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Department of Finance is looking at hiring and training more people for the enforcement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20,6762,3940,17436],"class_list":["post-255507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-budget","tag-during-friday","tag-finance-department","tag-secretary-larissa-larson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255507\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}