(a) All acts temporary in nature shall have termination dates as specified herein. (b) Temporary acts shall terminate on midnight of the first anniversary of their passage unless the activity authorized by such act has commenced within that period. (c) If the activity authorized by the temporary act has commenced within the period specified in (b), above, but work thereon has been halted before completion for reasons within the control of the Government, such temporary act shall terminate after a period of one (1) year has elapsed from the date of last activity on the project.
(d) When a temporary act has terminated pursuant to this Section, or by its own terms, the Director of Administration shall, after consultation with the affected Departments and Agencies, adjust the books of the government to revert to the General Fund or the fund from which any appropriated funds for the project or activity were taken all monies remaining in the project or activity accounts after a determination of all outstanding claims upon such accounts. The Director of Administration shall report to the Governor and to the Legislature, and to the affected Departments and Agencies, on a quarterly basis, the reversion transactions which have been made. (e) [Repealed.] SOURCE: Added by P.L. 15-104:1 (Mar. 5, 1980). Subsection (e) added as uncodified law by P.L. 15-108:7 (Mar. 5, 1980) and codified by the Compiler. Subsection (e) repealed by P.L. 15-142:8 (Oct. 9, 1980). COMPILER’S COMMENT: This type of Legislation was suggested by Governor Calvo in some of his (January and February 1979) speeches. Heretofore, there has been no expiration date on appropriation or other temporary bills unless, by some chance, one had been included within the bill, itself, such as annual appropriations. As a result, excess monies remaining from finished projects could not be reverted to the General, or other, Fund without special legislation. Also, projects have had funds appropriated for them, sometimes for years, without action. By the time action is ready, inflation has so increased costs that further legislation appropriating more funds is required. A number of other states, including Oregon, have similar provisions, but these are not directly applicable to Guam due to differing organization of the state government. Subsections (a) and (b) provide for a year's grace period since this is a reasonable time to organize a project. However, beyond that time, with inflation as it is, a review is most often required due to costs which have increased beyond the original appropriation. It seems better to require a complete review of a project and its priorities if nothing has happened for a whole year, then a mere appropriation of additional amounts. The General Fund is not tied up as much with this Section as it is at present. Note that the final clause of subsection (a) has been removed by the Compiler to conform this subsection to the repeal of all of § 104 of this Chapter. The inclusion of a reference to repealed § 104 is meaningless. Subsection (c) provides that the reversion of excess funds is a ministerial act and provides the standards for the Director of Administration to accomplish such an act. Allowance is made for a possible redraft of the Government Claims Act to give access to funds in the affected accounts by claimants having a cause arising from that project. However, at present this provision relating to "a determination of all outstanding claims" will refer only to paying contractors and the like. Subsection (d) provides a similar reversion to the General or other Fund where the Act, itself, expires. While it may seem logical to place this Section in another title dealing with financial administration, it is placed here because the subject of duration of statutes is basic to all of the laws of Guam. In line with keeping the same subjects in the same portion of the Code, this provision is placed here, rather than in some other place.