Budget Transfers Allow Sandbag Purchases and Payments to Vendors

The Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance Monday approved appropriation transfers for the Territorial Emergency Management Agency and Fire and Emergency Medical Services.

Although senators had only minor concerns about the transfers, Sen. Alma Francis Heyliger said she was concerned about the “method” being used to transfer the money.

She said a budget had already been passed and “set in stone” and now seven senators “can get together and move around millions.”

Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory, chair of the committee, said that these transfers need only her committee’s approval because a line-item budget was originally approved for the agencies. She added that if a lump sum budget had been approved, the agencies could move the money around any way they saw fit. She also said the transfers were not an increased appropriation and an increased appropriation would need a different process.

Sen. Franklin Johnson was among the senators who questioned the timing of the transfer for VITEMA. The transfer of $100,000 was for the purchase of sandbags. Franklin asked why this was happening as the territory was already “deep in hurricane” season.