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$11M in ARRA money unspent, 37% of projects yet to be completed
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Posted on Nov 28 2013
The CNMI has yet to spend some $11 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money as of Oct. 30, 2013, representing some 9 percent of the $119 million in ARRA money awarded to the islands since 2009. Moreover, 37 percent or 21 of 56 ARRA-funded projects remain incomplete.
Latest data from recovery.gov shows the CNMI was awarded a little over $119 million in ARRA money through Sept. 30, 2013.
As of Oct. 30, the CNMI was able to draw down or spend a little over $108 million.
This leaves over $11 million still unspent.
Of 56 ARRA-funded projects, only 35 or 62 percent have been completed as of Oct. 30. They are worth more than $70 million.
Twelve projects are more than 50 percent completed, and six are less than 50 percent finished.
Three have not even started, involving $4.5 million.
But the still unspent ARRA money for the CNMI listed on recovery.gov is safe, meaning it would not go back to the U.S. Treasury.
This is because it has already been obligated or that there is a waiver from the Dodd-Frank Act, even if the project has not started. The Dodd-Frank Act did say that ARRA funds “not obligated by the end of 2012 would go back to the U.S. Treasury.”
ARRA money paid for hundreds of jobs in the CNMI, many of them at the Public School System.
Of the over $119 million in ARRA funds awarded to the CNMI, 40 percent or over $48 million went to education, mainly PSS.
Energy and environment projects got the second biggest chunk at almost $39 million, followed by transportation-related projects at over $15 million.
The rest went to infrastructure, family, public safety, research and development/science, housing, health, and job training.
The Obama administration’s ARRA program was meant to jumpstart the economy, as well as create and save jobs.
ARRA funds have tremendously moved CNMI projects but because they’re drying up, the Inos administration hopes that the negative impact of the end of the ARRA program and sequestration will be cushioned by an improved tourism industry.
