OVER the year and two months since the Calvo administration took office, we have continued to be told of cash shortfalls for government of Guam agencies such as the Guam Police Department, the Department of Public Health and Social Services and the Guam Department of Education.

At the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012, the governor ordered the Bureau of Budget Management and Research to place a 15 percent reserve on the budgets of all the Executive branch agencies. These agencies are now crying shortage of funds, and are trimming crucial services to our community because they have 15 percent less than what was budgeted for in FY2012.

One casualty of the governor’s imposed 15 percent reduction in the Division of Senior Citizens is the 43-year competitively outsourced contract with the private nonprofit GGARP/SPIMA. The mayors will use $120,000 of the DPHSS allocation instead in this election year to hire temporary government employees and to pay benefits such as health insurance. There has been no disclosure yet of where the $120,000 or 15 percent reserve will be used or if it will be used later by the mayors under the same MOU.

My hopeful expectation is that the governor will still bid out the contract so our man'amko that work for GGARP/SPIMA can continue to be gainfully employed, should they win the bid as they have over the last 43 years. They just need a chance.

A few weeks ago, GPD indicated they had a $3 million shortfall in this year’s budget. This is very alarming because GPD was funded at the same level as last year and there are no increases to the department payroll. Again, our public safety is at risk over a governor-imposed reduction.

Last week, the Guam Education Board directed the superintendent to provide a date when GDOE will have to shut down all schools due to the 15 percent reserve. Because of this 15 percent reserve imposed by the administration, the Guam Education Board says it has no choice but to close schools this August and September. Both the Public Auditor and I have urged the administration to release these funds to GDOE.

The governor touts millions in savings we have yet to see. So where are these so-called savings?

The administration wants all of us to simply believe, without any evidence. I guess they want all of us to just “imagine savings.” It would not be the first time they have asked us to believe.

On June 3, 2011 during the Supplemental Budget of FY2011 discussions, a letter was sent to all government of Guam employees urging them to support the governor’s Supplemental Budget, which took away $12 million for the Hay pay raises to pay the Calvo SelectCare contract because the governor said it was underfunded. He stated, “Cash isn’t necessarily the problem for the rest of Fiscal Year 2011.We’ve managed the cash well enough.” Rather, it was spending authority.

A few months later, the administration cited the lack of cash as an excuse for another shortcoming; all the while Calvo’s SelectCare was paid $12 million in premiums. Today, we come to find out that Calvo’s SelectCare actually made too much profit and federal laws require it to reimburse millions of dollars to the employees and the government of Guam by August 2012.

On Jan. 30 of this year, the government of Guam received $22 million in ACTC payments that were meant to pay for Tax Year 2011 and prior year refunds. On Feb. 2, the director of Administration publicly stated there was no cash to pay income tax refunds for Tax Year 2011. The director’s excuse was that she was going to sit on that cash until 2013 and pay out Tax Year 2012 refunds that won’t even be filed until after January 2013 and due June 2013.

It is time to move from just saying that this government will be current in paying refunds and imagining it being done. With over $22 million in real cash in the bank, we can just do it.