By Pacific Island Times News Staff
The Port Authority of Guam's Board of Directors unanimously approved the agency’s $49 million budget for fiscal 2023, with a projected revenue of $53.7 million.
The port said the projected revenue is $5.46 million more than the previous year’s projected revenues of $48.3 million.
To arrive at a feasible revenue forecast, the port authority said it surveyed main customers for its 2023 income estimates and added a 2.2 percent increase on cargo-related proceeds to arrive at a realistic revenue projection for the agency.
Saying it has adopted fiscal prudence, the port said its total expenses were based on the needs of each division and annual obligations to include: annual debt service of 5.7 million, maintaining a debt-service coverage ratio of 1.25, days cash on hand – 500, and funding for capital improvement projects from bond, federal and local funding sources.
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“We continue to use a ‘bottom-up zero-based budgeting’ approach which focuses on financial accountability and sensible spending strategies while identifying cost-saving alternatives that has proven to be successful for FY 2021 and FY 2022," said Rory J. Respicio, the port's general manager.
"Along with this, we are aggressively pursuing new federal funding opportunities for the Port’s equipment acquisition and yard expansion program,” he added.
Respicio said the numbers presented to the board represented realistic valuations for the port’s financial position for FY 2023.
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With the projected numbers on revenue and expense, the funds available for debt service will result in a ratio of 1.98, which is .73 or 58 percent higher than the required DSCR of 1.25 for FY 2023.
Respicio said the budget also includes the vacancy pool of $1.2 million, CIP pool of $1.4 million and equipment pool of $900,000, allowing the administration the flexibility to prioritize spending for each category with final approval coming from the board for the procurement process.
“We have been spot-on achieving our revenue projections, while spending significantly less than what we have been authorized to spend, and our decisions are prudent and transparent,” said Respicio.
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