MPLT empties Saipan Trust Fund

The Marianas Public Land Trust is liquidating the Saipan Trust Fund in view of its plan to retire the Fund altogether.

MPLT board chair Juan S. Torres said the Fund has grown to $686,000 from an initial investment of $175,449 in 1991.

Of the amount, $400,000 has been remitted to the Department of Finance following the recent passage of Public Law 14-26, which appropriates the money for scholarship and other public programs on Tinian.

“This amount is being transferred to your office in order to fund this appropriation. The balance remaining from the Fund will be transmitted to you upon completion of the final accounting. At this point, the Saipan Trust Fund will cease to exist,” said Torres in an Oct. 28, 2004 letter to Finance Secretary Fermin A. Atalig.

STF, which was originally managed by the Department of Finance, was transferred to MPLT in 1991. It was originally set up as the Special Deposit Fund on Oct. 1, 1957, representing monies received from the U.S. government as compensation for land use and occupancy on Saipan and Tinian during the Trust Territory period.

The use of the funds was governed by Article IV of the Navy Order, which stated that the funds “will be used for the benefit of the indigenous inhabitants of the islands of Saipan and Tinian.”

According to the government, the Fund has been used for Saipan projects, including a $67,729 appropriation for the Saipan Scholarship Program; a $130,000 loan to the defunct Saipan Housing Authority; and the appropriation of $240,000 for the installation of a Saipan sewer line and road paving.

The government also took $694,328 from the Fund from 1956 to 1965 to construct the Saipan hospital.

Torres said the total value of the investments in 1991 was $175,449, represented by six holdings acquired in September 1977. Over the intervening 14 years, dividends were paid amounting to $60,146, which was deposited to the General Fund, and the common shares appreciated by $100,000, Torres said.

The total value has grown to nearly $700,000 for an average annual return of about 11 percent.

“This has allowed the STF to grow by a multiple of 3.9 times during this period of time,” he said.

On Sept. 21, Gov Juan N. Babauta signed into House Bill 14-011, appropriating $400,000 from the Saipan Trust Fund for Tinian residents’ for scholarship, medical supplemental assistance, and other public programs.

“The enactment of this measure will ensure that critical needs of the residents of [Tinian] who are of Northern Marianas descent are met. This measure accomplishes this by providing for greater access to education, health care, and other public programs,” Babauta said.

The bill was introduced by Reps. Norman S. Palacios, Claudio K. Norita, and Timothy P. Villagomez.