DoF suspends land payments

The Department of Finance has put on hold land compensation requests, following an instruction from the Attorney General’s Office.

“We have to follow the instruction from the AGO. We don’t want to violate the law. If I don’t follow their advice and there’s a legal problem, I would have to defend myself on my own. I don’t have money for that,” said Finance Secretary Fermin M. Atalig in an interview Thursday.

In a May 9 letter, the AGO instructed Finance to stop processing all land compensation drawdowns amid concerns over the Marianas Public Lands Authority’s handling of recent land compensation payments.

The AGO said that it was reviewing several drawdown requests pending approval at Finance.

“We are contemplating taking action against MPLA with respect to such drawdowns. As such, I ask that you do not process any land compensation payments until further notice,” acting AG Clyde Lemons had said in the letter.

Atalig said there are 12 claimants whose land claims are pending review, including the controversial $3.45 million Malite case. He said the claims being reviewed by the AGO total to some $6 million.

Defending the AGO’s action, Attorney General Pamela Brown said her office is merely putting in place appropriate measures and does not aim to delay the release of land compensation funds.

She said the AGO’s review of each case normally takes a considerable time. As part of the procedure, she said 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.

During these reviews, she said 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 irregularities which come to our attention,” she said.

The House leadership had questioned the AGO’s action, saying it violates the law. Vice Speaker Timothy Villagomez, in a May 17, 2005 letter to Brown, said that the land compensation law, Public Law 13-17 as amended by Public Law 13-25, provides that the MPLA commissioner shall have 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.