by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Office of Finance and Budget held a Special Economic Services meeting this afternoon aimed at looking at the financials of the government and offering recommendations for financial policy. Committee on Finance chair Senator Ben Pangelinan hoped to use today's meeting as a prelude to the budget along with looking where the government is in terms of budget items, expenditures and revenues for the Fiscal Year 2013 budget.

"I think it's important, especially with the Administration focused on cash collections, that we get these reports and we're able to look at that in order to proceed with making some proper planning and recommendations for the operations of the government and the structuring of long term debt that has taken over the last year," the senator said.

And while he liked how Adelup has focused on the budget along with cash collections and deposits, he was dismayed that the Legislature has yet to receive a timely cash collections report from them. Pangelinan meanwhile added he continues to be baffled by the lack of cash availability as the BBMR Revenue Tracking Report through May showed that General Fund revenues collections are 7% higher than Fiscal Year 2011 and that General Fund collections are showing $15 million higher than project revenues and the appropriated expenditures of GovGuam.