(Washington, DC, March 14, 2005) — Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen’s bill to create a chief financial officer for the Virgin Islands passed the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously on Monday afternoon.  The bill was passed along with a slew of Resources Committee bills that were all managed on the floor by Christensen.

In support of her bill, Christensen pointed out that it was an important step forward and will lay a stronger foundation for the future. “It has become very clear that the people of the Virgin Islands recognize the need for more accountability, transparency and efficiency in the management of federal and local funding,” the delegate said.

“The implementation of an independent CFO is clearly not the only way to achieve it, but it is the only viable proposal that has come forth over the last 8 or more years of increasing deficits and narrowly averted fiscal crises, which have only been delayed through repeated borrowing,” she said.

Christensen said that while she believes that the groundwork for fiscal discipline has been laid by the current administration,  the only way to ensure that the financial management system is fully transparent, networked and integrated is if it is overseen by someone who is independent and has no official territory to protect.

“This is not to cast any aspersions on the hard working public servants who currently head or work at any of our departments, including our Office of Management and Budget,” said Christensen. “They labor under a system which is outdated, cumbersome, ineffective, and cannot support the missions of their offices.”

Christensen said that public services, salaries, contracting and compliance with contracts, infrastructure and accounting is not where it needs to be. “More importantly, the fiscal information needed for effective planning is simply unavailable in a reliable form.” Christensen thanked Chairman Richard Pombo and Ranking Member Nick Rahall and her Republican and Democratic colleagues on the Resources Committee for their support.