by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - On a scale from 1 to 10 in regards to it's financial health and performance, the Government of Guam has received a 2.73. That's according to Crawford and Associates president Frank Crawford, who is on Guam this week meeting with island leaders to discuss and educate on Guam's Performeter score.

Crawford describes the Performeter like a financial barometer, saying GovGuam's score while still low is improving. "Historically, Guam has kind of labored because they have such a significant deficit that they've labored in the 1 and 1.5 range for a number of years, but the fiscal year that ended '11 saw an uptick, a reduction in the deficit by a little bit."

He also attributes the score to GovGuam consistently spending more money on expenditures than what they've earned in current revenues over the years but adds in the last year GovGuam has actually earned more revenue than they did spend in expenses. The Performeter looks at over a dozen ratios based on financial statements audited every year.

Crawford has been doing the Performeter since 2003 and is contracted under the Graduate School from Hawaii funded by the Department of the Interior to analyze all the insular governments and territories.