Today’s audit report entitled, “Audit on the CFSM [Congress of FSM] Funded Project and Social Project Programs: $1.6 Million Approved Without Clear Selection Criteria,” from the FSM Office of the National Public Auditor has confirmed our worst fears about the FSM Congress; we have some of the greediest, selfish, unscrupulous crooks spending millions of public funds on their own pet projects.
Public Auditor Haser Hainrick. Photo Source: www.fsmopa.fm
Mr. Haser Hainrick, the National Public Auditor summarized in the cover letter below the frustrations of the nation in our elected officials in the FSM Congress. We knew all along that the FSM Congress has some of the greedieststigate these crooks in Congress?
Letter from National Public Auditor
politicians, but $1.6 million is simply unacceptable. Now we have proof. Should the Department of Justice follow suit and inveThe Office of the National Public Auditor has released Audit Report No. 2015-04 to the President and Members of the 18th Congress covering the appropriations made under Public Law 17-68 for Congress public projects. Here is the web link to the full report ….
http://fsmopa.fm/files/onpa/2014/Audit%20Report%202015-04.pdf
After many years of spending several millions of dollars for public projects, one wonders – – where have the monies gone to? What positive results have been achieved? Could the process be improved?
Veto messages year after year, penned by the former and current Presidents, and highlighting the urgent need to refocus Congress appropriation to public projects that support National priorities, but sadly, it remains business as usual. Audits after audits, spanning many years from the past Public Auditors until present, disclosing flaws and recommending changes in Congress public projects, however, it is still the same practices thru the years. The few recipients of the public projects love it. The ultimate beneficiaries of this public project scheme remain. On the National front, however, it is unfortunately creating a culture of dependency on free government hand-outs that never helps in pushing the nation forward and runs counter to the whole idea of people empowerment. People want progress. People deserve better.
The statistics show that funding for public projects has increased from $4.2 million in 2001 to $6.5 million in 2013, putting nearly $464,000 in the hands of each senator to spend each year for projects they so wish to fund without any public scrutiny. Preliminary figures seem to indicate that for 2014, the total amount for public projects further escalated to $10 million, or 138% jump from the 2001 total.
Let me comment on Congress response to this audit, which you can view the full text under the management response on page 55.
Congress commented they are not involved in implementation but only in the appropriation of public project funds
While the Constitution clearly requires Congress to appropriate and the allottees to implement, this does not hold true in actual practice as we found in several cases during our review. For instance, audit evidence we collected clearly show that project coordinators and allottees did as they were instructed by senators. Hence, we recommend that Congress should abolish the Election District Offices in Pohnpei and shift from designating the Development Authorities in Chuuk to serve as allottees. These entities (allottees) are the senators’ own offices and employees there are simply receiving their instructions from the senators. The Udot Case in Chuuk sets the legal restrictions for Congress members from appropriating and at the same time implementing public project funds. Clearly, this has been going on for years and hasn’t stopped. Certain members of Congress are directing what the allottees should do, thus playing the dual role as appropriator in Palikir and as executor at the state/municipal levels. The statement made by the Congress that any deficiency for project implementation should be addressed to the allottees (not Congress) to respond to needs to be re-examined simply because it does not agree with the actual practices in the field. Albeit these significant audit discoveries, we commend the Congress members from Yap State who have been consistently using the Governor of Yap as allottee for public projects.
Congress commented that the audit lacks standards to compare actual practices against.
This is exactly the gist for this review. During our preliminary survey, we found that Congress continued to fund all kinds of public projects as members may choose even if many of the projects did not yield any meaningful, public benefit. Lack of clarity, transparency, and accountability was a significant audit concern that prompted us to move forward with this review. There are neither criteria nor guidelines to follow in selecting which projects to fund and who is eligible to receive funding. It is clear from the comment made by Congress that they, too, recognize this significant omission. Nonetheless, however, the argument that there are no standards and laws for our audit to measure actual practices against cannot stand because for many years the FSM already had in place its National and State development plans, there are laws which prohibit the involvement of Congress members in the implementation of public projects such as the Udot Case, and there are numerous best practices and prudent actions that should be consulted as standards. Failing this, however, has resulted in the waste of public funds appropriated for all sorts of public projects some of which are;
- Buying sacks of rice, cases of chicken and turkey tail, ramen, coffee, sugar, etc.
- Buying cigarettes from a store owned by a senator with justification that “these are the best tasting cigarettes.”
- Financial assistance to help students pay their old school debts. However, during our fieldwork we collected evidence that students abandoned their classes, did not perform well, expelled, and etc. In essence, this funding is rewarding poor performers and not only competes but sets out to defeat the intent of the already established governments’ scholarship programs.
- Growing crops in the backyard which is clearly for personal consumption.
- Fishing projects supposedly to support export based on suspected receipts and for a fishing market that did not exist.
- Vehicles bought and used more for personal needs than for any public purpose.
- Stocking owned retail stores with rice and other inventories under the guise of exporting local produce to out-of-state markets.
- Building and renovating personal residences with public funds.
- Funerals
- Airline tickets
- Old debts incurred for equipment parts that were discarded years ago because they were of the wrong sizes, not fit, and therefore were wasted in the garbage dump.
- Yearly recurring expenses for municipalities and agencies that did not receive any budget scrutiny and lacked public hearings via which their strategic plans for the future should have been required in order to evaluate how these entities should operate as going-concern and their expected performance outputs to yield public benefits. Lacking any such plans, they don’t care because comes next year and the years thereafter and they will still receive government hand-outs, hence continuing to grow the attitude of government dependency.
People are asking, why is Congress wasting public funds on expenses that are for personal needs rather than for any public purpose?
The soundness of our conclusion is validated when Congress commented that it is the same as what they have heard from the President, that appropriations by Congress should be supported by hearings, detailed committee reports, and should be in accordance with the Strategic Plan. The fact is, our independent audits draw their conclusions based on the evaluation made on audit evidence collected during the course of our review. Further, our conclusion that Congress should re-evaluate and change its method of funding public projects is not new. This is the same conclusion in past audits after audits, which you may access on our website at www.fsmopa.fm. In other words, we don’t mirror our audit conclusions based on others’ but based on our own independent review and assessment.
It is a constitutional requirement in this government that the Office of the National Public Auditor should be independent. The public should know, and I hereby advise, that neither the Congress nor the President has influenced the independence or the objectivity of our work. The conclusions reached in our audits are strictly based on unbiased and objective evaluation of the audit evidence, guided by a high degree of ethics in discharging our duties and responsibilities. Safeguarding the independence and the objectivity of the National Public Auditor and the staff is a top priority for me and all the good, hard-working staff of the office. Any claims otherwise should be shunned as without basis. Additionally, Congress claim that this audit is a political criticism is below our norm, and something which we do not subscribe to. If Congress can accept the check-and-balance roles between the executive and legislative, I submit therefore that in the same vein Congress should also accept our audits because they are objective and unbiased as mandated by the Constitution. That is because we do our work and we know that the public, to whom we are ultimately accountable to, depends on the conclusions and the findings disseminated through our audits in order to know what is happing in their governments.
Notwithstanding the above, we wish to commend some members of Congress who are committed to advancing the interest of the public at large over and above their own personal and political gains.
Finally and in the interest of space and time, I have not made any comment on the issue of non-compliance with the intent of the appropriation laws and the Project Control Documents because they are just too numerous to list. Let me, however, invite you to read the full inspection report by following the web link indicated above.
Our inspection was conducted in accordance with the Quality Standards for Inspection issued by the US Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE).
Dr. Vid Raatior
Dr. Vid Raatior is a proud Chuukese parent, educator, citizen blogger, and social entrepreneur living in the US.
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How about spending government funds by asking young ladies for Breakfast,Lunch and Dinner?Oh I forgot one,Airplane tickets to meet up with their online girl friends somewhere outside chuuk and claiming that they have important meeting to attend in Hawaii,Guam and US mainland? I should have spending those money buying my school needs or my classes and where the hell is my chuuk state scholarship?where is the”NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND”at this time?You guys better watch out because you are all in my plan ok?
This is very difficult for the public to and swallow. As we know this is new. This unwarranted attitude of the FSM Congress has been evolving eversince despite many changes of its members. Even though we elect new ones to change such gruesome practice, their mentality will always change the first time they step into the chamber. What we ought to do now is to stop the so-called authorities to be allottee of the funds and require that the Governor should be the allottee thereof. That means no more public funds for campaigning. In addition, there should a law that restricts appropriation of funds just before election of members of congress.
It is extremely heart wrenching to know that Chuuk has money that can bring up our beautiful State. It is extremely sad that we look at our home and see how we struggle because of greed, because of high level of covetting, because of negligence to what really matters- the good of our people today and tomorrow. I have seen a lot of this- building big houses, purchasing family members tickets, purchasing good to add to personal retail inventory.
The National Government should put strict guidelines on distributed funds to the Senators. Receipts should not be hand written. And they should have a tracking number on it along with the contact number of the business the goods were purchased from.. These things should be able to be verified.
Values from our Senators have changed. But it shouldn’t when they are in office. They should always remember that they are selected by the people and they are in Office to work for the people. Integrity has vanished from our leaders. Their duties to the people that believed in them has long been forgotten until the next election. Honor is not valued to them no more. Selfless service is not found in their dictionary. Personal courage is an unfamiliar territory to our leaders. They should be automatically removed from their seats for misusing funds. They should be penalized! They should not be given the right to run for election again. We NEED Servant Leaders!!!!
Vid, The congressmen like patronizing the young ones vs. the older ones. They’re still growing
to be betta.
I wonder why Public Auditor only make all these allegations that could not be proven, even though he claims, they are Public Auditor’s findings. You read throughout the report, there is no referral to the prosecutor if he believes there are illegal activities by the Congressmen. It seems the Public Auditor is making all these allegations for political gains for his cronies challenging the incumbent.
You are not an auditor and you don’t know the rule for public auditor, try to read the rule that is enacted in 2002 which is called Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) Their work has been checked with evidences and maintained the ethics that guide the conduct of their office and also what the public deserved to know, mainly the FSM citizen. Achocho chok,
Sickening …
Can these so called leaders get it through their heads when elected into office, you become a public servant? Not an instant business owner ….
There needs to be some sort of accountability for this. A severe one to teach anyone coming into office of what NOT to do.
When will we see a change, stomach politics always prevail thats why it will take a while to see changes.
Interesting!
“Ongoing business in the House interfering public access to the Reality of their Dreams”
no wonder y, CHUUK didnt ka pusin sinei…..waiooo mo chuuk aaa….nge ekene mo ekena mekimek aaa….
Why am I not surprised? It’s like a habit already or should I say a tradition.
Thank you Lord..thank you God..thank you Audit office…thank you chuukforum…!!
This is what I was trying to tell everyone, the problem is definitely ( politicians) FSM and Chuukese…
Politicians raped our Compact funds…while we people stand, watch and suffer..!
One good example.
Sabino fakkun pwapwa ne encourage southern Namoneas people to ask Congresman-Bonsiano Fasi Nethon for sacks of rice, turkey tail, plane ticket and on and on and on…in return for your vote…!
This is why a Republic of Chuuk WILL never make a difference..a lots of Firiokich,kirimwas many chuukese politicians…
As of March 24, 2014,
A Congresman introduced BILL NO. 18-144 to raise the annual salary of the 18th FSM congress to $60.000…
So that means..a chuukese Congresman earns about $28.85 per hour..
Nge onokewe me niekewe choon Chuuk ra anagang weires non year nakatam rese mo nge akkarap ngeni ekis metei congress a fori…ewe Chuuk minimum wage mi atakirikir $1.00
Do we all see the difference.??
My goodness..!!
Pwun akon fet ese tongeni feita chuuk non mwun pwun ekon napw kieikiringaw ren neujkena meinapw rese feri pwe aramas meinisin repwe ngaseno
U mojen sinei ika ifa usun ena itenap aa.anisi.chon sukkun nge iei use kuna namotan,
justice will always prevail. How sad that we have been receiving fund year after and never have solid projects that will create wealth and wellness to better our citizens of FSM. When I visited my home island 7 years ago I told my brother who lived in Pohnpei at that time, man these Government officials aren’t ashamed. How can they have fancy Residents and big businesses when Pohnpei has not much change in development? Aren’t they shameful. I mean we hardly know any honest and trust worthy member of the Congress! Just look at number of FSM citizens migrating overseas looking for better life because we are struggling to survive in our own islands and the government is not evening doing anything. I Lord Jesus have mercy on us.
True indeed…!!
Our politicians are a bunch of crooks, who work only for their families and their own personal gains…but…never to build a prosperous federation and a decent living for ALL FSM citizens…!
This is the reason we ( FSM citizens) migrate around the world to at least have better lives and better living than what we see/experience at home…
The Audit office did a great job and I hope our legal system correct all these wrongdoings..!!
Iwe! Pointing fingers to leaders of our State and their misuse of funding iwe metei?
Ina popun owa men apasa ese wor ami trust in our leaders of Chuuk pun iei owa men wesen tongeni!!
“Om mengiringir e depend won met sokkun tipis ke feri (Paul).”
God bless these leaders of Chuuk State and National Government. to take/continue leading in prosperity.
Thank you to the FSM Public Auditor’s Office. FSM Congress misused public funds. Intersting!!!!Audit, after audit, where is our legal system?all abusive senators should be on the front line of our local news paper. Outside the FSM, any abusive member of the government served time in jail, To stop them from abusing and let them pay for what they did.
Why raised their annual salary and not minimum wage?Why buy sacks of rice, and not repair public areas like roads, school bus stops etc. More importantly?
Compact funding will end? what many of our leaders assume or it will really end, Trust funds are created for what? For their own abuse also. The citizens need to stop voting for corrupted leaders, many of our leaders did not finish their school, they are not creative in their thinking, they hire their own family members. All senators needs to go to school, get creative thinking, work wisely for better future.
Shame on all congress members who are involved in the government corruption. If you feel you are one of them go to hell.
I support you on that!
Thank you; this is a great article. You have outlined the problems quite well.
I think we all know at this point that the “sheeples” are not going to do anything. There should be some type of cataclysmic event in congress to change our situation for the better. I believe that event is not too far into the future. Now is the time to prepare ourselves for 2023, and eliminate the corrupt leaders. We don’t need anymore ” what’s in it for me” congress. We needed change, and there is no time like the present to begin.
I think I heard Yap Congress & Chuuk Congress. Does that mean Pohnpei & Kosrae Congress are good? Just curious..
Now, let me point some fingers here cuz I’m sick & tired of ‘anonymous news.’ Is this the reason why former Congressmen Roosevelt Kansou from Weno, Jack Fritz Tonoas, John Petewon Faichuk,,,, & some others, are supposedly in prison? Prison serving time is joke though, these CROOKS still drive around the island in their fancy vehicles.. Somebody, someone fill me in. Common Chuukese, help me connect the dots. Now we have Bonsiano buying people tickets. & chicken ass with the same money..??
It is sad people! Outrageous!! That is why next time, DO NOT VOTE for greedy selfish crooks like these assholes!! Oh, watch their kids coming up the political latter.. Breadfruits don’t grow coconuts!! These CROOKS NEED to be &(*%!!
I would say no, one way or the other, all of them misuse public funds-chuukese,Kosraean,yapese and pohnpeian..the only difference is,
Chuukese and Yapese almost always everyday blasted on the front page of every news…
And they (chuukese and Yapese ) I guess they grasped a handful amount..compare to the other two ( Kosrae & pohnpei) who took small pile after smal pile..
But in very specific details, they all raped our Compact funds..!
But that is true…our leaders are buying chicken ass for our votes..!!
Fan-Cools, are you blind? Can’t you see your favorite part “chicken ass…” are being cut off. Take a good look again at that chix you’re gobbling up, I bet, your eyes are closed.
My dear Jane,
Tirou
I guess too much chicken ass right my way…but thank you anyway…
All I know is November 24,2014, the 18th FSM congress indroduced BILL NO. 18-144 to raise congress annual salary to $60.000…or $28.85 per hour while the Chuuk minimum wage is freaking $1.00 or $.90 per hour..
Correct me if I’m wrong..but only stating facts, no assumptions, no joking and no bullshiting..
Tell me how am I being blind by our ( you & I ) chicken ass.??
E Fenn mwa lilo pung pungun ngasangasei, mwa met chuuk. ..mwa met congressman, sipwe ifa ach sipwe siwili ekkei sokkun aramas?
ren chek ami oupwe pwan fat ikenai chon chuuk ra pwan chaow chaow rice meren onokewe cong cong bell ra pwan chek aparas non punu chuuk , nge met ikei met sikan mwechen ar repwe wis ren. to me let change them the congressman and the state leaders ,
tirou omusano ach tipis
i didn’t finish my college at UOG cus it was so expensive ..which i applied for scholarship with northern namoneas congress…and i didnt get some cus they wanted to buy vehicle for their relatives and now i’m out of school to get odd jobs to pay off my student loan…..hope u got a heart Congressman!!
Pwipwi., D.W
You didn’t finish college because you spend most of the time chasing those hot chicks…lol
Joking pwipwi…
That is definitely true..not enough funds for students to pursue their dreams..!
I suggest that we stop crying over this because this misuse of funds from political leaders (and any figureheads that we may not be aware of) have been done to us over and over again, yet we put them right back into office time and time again. Solution? One possible solution, in my opinion, is to not vote for them the next time around.
When it comes to the voting part, that’s when I don’t see my name on the list. I guess it’s part of the crook too.
They need to improve or upgrade everything electronic way….just saying, hole things get better.
well i guess is all part off the plan..win the election and steal or waste all the money on their family lol..i don’t think the corruption well ever stop it is a tradition all Government from all countries are corrupt..
Public Auditor for FSM,can you please list down those Chuukese Congressmen who missed use the money
You are not an auditor and you don’t know the rule for public auditor, try to read the rule that is enacted in 2002 which is called Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) Their work has been checked with evidences and maintained the ethics that guide the conduct of their office and also what the public deserved to know, mainly the FSM citizen. Achocho chok,
Thank you all for the good comments.I like to see justice done!.just like the one that happened to the Chuuk Congress yrs before..Why not the state pursued to sue the individual for corruption?.Let me say this about my NW region.in Chuuk we made change for our leader this March 3 election we change our Congress.what happens to all the islands in Chuuk?did you all change out your Yes for Independent State of Chuuk?.We as Chuukese do not need all things or bad reputation of being FIRIOKIJ..The FSM Congress need to take back their funding project or public funding to be run by FSM Congress.Or do like Yap is doing, put in the hands of the Governor to operate Public Projects..if they are trustworthy?,,cheers!!…
I agree with you.. Public projects must be controlled by the state governor with collaboration with the mayors…in that way, we can see the real Picture of development not only for Weno, but all 40 municipalities…
In my southern Namoneas case, we don’t see development since the beginning of the Compact I…Jack fritz was a FSM speaker for decades and he have done nothing…Sabino was a congressman for few years and have done zero…Joe Suka was a congressman and he have done a $h!%…the late Simiram was a Congresman and he had done nothing…Bonsiano Nethon been in congress for two terms and he have done a shit, but FRee sack of rice, motor engine episukuwen chicken and many many free stuffs…
All these individual mentioned above never contribute in our schools,dispensaries, infrastructures or anything that will help our younger generation…!!
The national government must implement very strict regulations for public projects soo all these crooks pay the hard penalty of their wrong doing..!!
I think that goes with all our government leaders..
Just this month, march 2015, our FSM president honorable Many Mori vetoed a Bill aka “Public Project” that would have given the same old dirty-hands congressmen $2.9 million to continue abuse,rape, strangle and slaughter while us( FSM citizens) suffer…
Nothingood in their hands..!!
These are federal fundings. Greed has definitely blinded our leaders for as long as I could remember. If not mistaken, some of our former leaders were convicted because of this particular issue. Yet, lessons haven’t been learned. Do they think the Feds will hand out that much money and forget about audit? Anyways, this is old news. Nothing has changed and Chuuk has been sinking over the years, now at the point of drowning. Won’t be surprised if declared bankruptcy. Full blooded Chuukese. Main reason I do not plan on going back home. We can work hard as individual citizens. But if our leaders are corrupted, then it’s really a waste of our time and energy.
We need leaders who have hearts for their people not for the money.Let’s all remember that love of money is the root of all evil.