FSMIS (January 17, 2014): The Third Regular Session of the
Eighteenth Congress of the Federated States of Micronesia got started with an
"unusual" departure from tradition on January 10, 2014.
The normal practice has been that the Speaker of Congress
appoints a four-member committee known as the "Committee to Wait on the
President", comprising of Members from the four State Delegations. January
10, 2014 marked a departure from that usual practice when Speaker Dohsis Halbert
appointed an all-Chuukese Committee to report to President Manny Mori that
Congress is in town and ready for action. The Committee consisted of Senator
Wesley Simina, Chairman, Senator Tiwiter Aritos, Senator Tony Otto and Senator
Victor Gouland. President Mori questioned the motives behind having only
Chuukese Members on the Committee and said it may have been done in response to
his January 9 letter to Speaker Halbert. Chairman Simina said the Chuukese
Senators did not request for such appointment and assured the President the
Committee, as composed, represented Congress as a whole.
President Mori pointed out some items that have been pending
at Congress, specifically the telecommunication bill as well as a number of nominations.
He also made mention of a current budget supplemental request that he would
like Congress to address this session.
It has become more evident that Congress would require more time
to adequately tackle its workload. For this, President Mori suggested that
Congress consider lengthening its regular sessions or adding one more.
A significant amount of time went into the exchange of
discussions on the President's "urgent concerns" as raised in his
January 9th letter to Congress regarding legislative process with regards
public projects. The President asserted the entire process needs to be
rectified beginning with the initial development of projects all the way
through the various parts of the process that impact the successful control and
completion of projects. More specifically, he raised the issue relating to the
inadequate control of the processing and execution of the Project Control
Document (PCD). A flawed and inadequate PCD renders the implementation and
inspection of projects defective. In the same letter, the President emphasized
that he would stop public project funds if the defective process remains
unresolved.
Chairman Simina agreed that there are issues to be resolved
relating to the matter and that both Congress and the Executive Branch need to
work closely to resolve the issues.
The President also raised his concern that while the Nation
experiences a period of increase in revenue generated domestically, Congress
expenditures through public projects also surge. The President has voiced on
numerous occasions that the FSM needs to save-up funds through its Trust Fund
and a Set Aside Fund to be able to face financial pitfalls after 2023, address
environmental demands and catastrophes, and invest in priority-based economic
projects undergoing due diligence. He has been asking Congress to allocate
money into these types of reserves and to cap allocations into "public
projects and social programs" as way to demonstrate a serious concerted
leadership front in charting a tenable way forward more responsively. Congress
has not acted favorably toward the idea of a Set Aside fund. Instead, it has
exercised the privilege of increasing allocations towards projects determined rather
exclusively by Members on top of outstanding project funds that have yet to be
fully expended.
As a matter of inquiry, Congress wanted to be updated on
details of the breakdown of the $500,000 World Bank grant that went through the
Congressional approval process during the November special session.
Congress also inquired about the status of the various
typhoon relief assistance provided to the Republic of the Philippines, the
Republic of Palau, the FSM State of Yap and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam
for disasters brought about by Typhoon Haiyan a few months back.
The President assured Congress that checks for the relief
assistance have been disbursed to the named recipients. However,
acknowledgement of receipt by their respective Governments have not been
received by the FSM as of the meeting time.
For more
information, email fsmpio@mail.fm.
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