AGO denies delaying land payment

Attorney General Pamela Brown denies that her office is causing unnecessary delays in the release of land compensation funds.

“Let me assure you of the contrary,” said Brown in a May 25 letter to Gov. Juan N. Babauta, Senate President Joaquin G. Adriano, and House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial.

She said the AGO conducts a review of each case that normally takes a considerable time. As part of the procedure, the AGO verifies records of any indebtedness of each claimant to the government prior to the release of funds.

A review, she said, is conducted with the Division of Revenue and Taxation, Commonwealth Health Center, and other government agencies to ensure that the land compensation claimant does not owe monies to the government.

If the government is owed, “then due diligence requires this office to take action to collect those amounts owed.”

Frequently, she said, “it takes longer than one day” to get the information from a particular agency “as to whether amounts are owed to that agency.”

Further, she said that since the Social Security number of the land claimant is not provided as an identifier, the AGO has to contact another agency, the Marianas Public Lands Authority, to obtain the number “to verify that the land compensation claimant and the individual owing the debt to the government agency is in fact the same person.”

“Due diligence, however, requires us to conduct such a review to ensure that the government collects amounts owed to it,” Brown said.

As part of these reviews, she said that the AGO has discovered information “which in some cases has caused us to question both the land payment and whether the CNMI government is in fact the proper entity to be making such payment.”

“Again, due diligence requires us to further investigate any such irregularities which come to our attention,” she said.

Brown assured the elected leaders that her office “has no intention in needlessly delaying payments to land compensation claimants.”

The House leadership earlier questioned the AGO’s move to stop processing of all land compensation drawdown requests by MPLA, saying that it violates the law.

Vice Speaker Timothy Villagomez, in a May 17, 2005, letter to Brown cited the land compensation law, Public Law 13-17 as amended by Public Law 13-25, which provides that the commissioner of the MPLA shall have the expenditure authority over the Land Compensation Account within the Department of Finance, subject to the approval of the MPLA board.

He said neither P.L.13-17 and P.L. 13-25, nor any subsequent public law regarding land compensation claims, require that all land compensation claims be approved by the AGO prior to requesting a drawdown from Finance.

Villagomez said that, as long as MPLA complies with all relevant public laws and its own rules and regulations regarding land compensation claims, any agreement between MPLA and a landowner should be valid and payable by Finance.