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Money in the bag: CNMI gets $90M
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Posted on Apr 17 2009
The CNMI has received more than $90 million in federal stimulus grant money, but now the difficult part of reporting begins.
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the CNMI has received $92 million so far in formula grant money, said Commerce Secretary Mike Ada.
Now the government is focusing on submitting applications for competitive grant money. The first application submitted was for a grant that would fund an additional 45 law enforcement officers in the Northern Marianas.
“So now we’re just kind of waiting back to see how we do on the competitive side of things,” said Ada, who leads the CNMI’s effort for stimulus money.
He said his team will continue to file applications for competitive grants but is also now focusing on reporting.
“Now we’re more focused on the reporting,” he said. “Now that we have the money there’s another set of problems we have to address. That’s kind of where we’re going to start focusing our attention to now, so we walk away with clean audits, not engaging in grants we cannot commit to.”
Some grants, he added, require the governor to maintain the efforts even after the granting period.
“That’s something the governor needs to ensure that either A, we can do, or we notify the agency there may be a possibility we can’t do that, and make that disclaimer up front. Because if you don’t do those types of things, we may be liable to paying back money we already spent.”
Most people, Ada said, only look at the amount of money received. “They don’t realize the conditions that come with that,” he added.
He met with the Office of the Public Auditor recently who is also an important part of the effort, he said.
“Getting the money is the easy part. The hard part is maintaining the money and ensuring we’re adhering to all the requirements. That, in itself, is another task we have to address,” the Commerce Secretary said.
Also, Ada said any money received must be kept separate from the CNMI’s general fund, and job creation and jobs saved must be accounted for.
