SAIPAN — The Office of the Public Auditor says the CNMI government and several autonomous agencies have been significantly late in submitting required single audit reports tied to federal funding, a pattern the office warns can trigger serious federal consequences if not corrected.
In a Flash Report released Wednesday, OPA summarized the most recent audit report submissions for entities subject to federal single audit requirements and found that with the exception of Northern Marianas College, the listed entities were late submitting audit reporting packages to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC) and therefore did not comply with federal submission timelines.
The report’s table shows some audits were overdue by hundreds of days, including the CNMI government’s FY 2022 single audit listed at 845 days late, PSS FY 2022 at 241 days late, CUC FY 2023 at 527 days late, and CHCC FY 2019 at 1,414 days late.
OPA also highlighted federal oversight concerns about audit delays across U.S. insular areas, citing an Interior Department Office of Inspector General inspection report that said single audit submissions have been consistently late since FY 2019 in some jurisdictions.
OPA noted that Governor David M. Apatang signed Executive Order 2025-003 on Aug. 14, 2025, to clarify roles and responsibilities within the CNMI Single Audit Committee, which includes OPA, the Office of the Secretary of Finance, the Office of Grants Management, and the Office of Management and Budget.
The report also states that the Office of Insular Affairs expects insular governments, including the CNMI, to complete and publish FY 2023 single audits by Dec. 31, 2025, or by Feb. 28, 2026 at the latest, and may pursue remedial measures if that timeline is not met.
To address the backlog, OPA said entities behind on audits submitted a proposed audit catch-up plan with target dates extending through 2026 and, for some agencies and fiscal years, into 2027.
