Government spending over the first two months of the new administration is down by 7.5 percent compared to the same period last year, representing a $1.7 million drop.<\/p>\n
The decrease follows the expenditure control directive issued by Gov. Juan N. Babauta in late January for all Executive Branch departments and agencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Lt. Governor and I realized early on the importance of taking immediate action to control spending,\u201d said Babauta. \u201cWe have more to do, but we are very pleased to see these positive results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Total government expenditures during February and March this year were $21.5 million compared to $23.2 million during the same period in 2001.<\/p>\n
Spending within the Governor\u2019s own office is 23 percent below spending for the same period in the previous administration \u2013 a saving of $133,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cCutting government spending to stay within revenue projections is requiring cost control and wise spending by all of us. If I expect departments and agencies to comply, I am going to ensure the Office of the Governor sets the standard,\u201d the Governor added.<\/p>\n
Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente has also cut spending. His office expenditures dropped to $72,000 in February and March, a 42 percent decrease from the previous lieutenant governor\u2019s spending.<\/p>\n
According to the Department of Finance, the Office of the Governor\u2019s account, including professional services, personnel and travel, expended $447,000 in February and March compared to $580,000 over the same period last year.<\/p>\n
The Governor has also cut spending on official representation, vehicle rentals, and communications.<\/p>\n
As all government offices, the Governor\u2019s annual budget is being cut by 8.02 percent. Even with the cut, however, Babauta hopes to show a surplus for the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe may have to use some of the funds saved by the Governor\u2019s office to pay for critical needs, such as doctors and nurses,\u201d the Governor explained.<\/p>\n
Babauta has further ordered departments and agencies to limit their fiscal year 2003 budget requests to comply with the administration\u2019s projections of available resources of $210.8 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Government spending over the first two months of the new administration is down by 7.5 percent compared to the same period last year, representing a $1.7 million drop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63393","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63393\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}