The Department of Public Lands has finally remitted money held for over a decade in the Bank of Saipan to the Marianas Public Land Trust, negotiating a release of an account and remitting this money, some $800,000, to the trust for its investment.<\/p>\n
DPL communicated the release of the money\u2014held in a restricted account at Bank of Saipan pursuant to an agreement between the bank and DPL\u2019s previous iteration, the Marianas Public Lands Authority\u2014in a letter to the trust on April 11, 2016. A total of $800,334.16 has been released to MPLT.<\/p>\n
DPL Secretary Marianne Teregeyo said she wrote to the bank several weeks ago and requested to withdraw the money \u201cbecause that money should have gone to MPLT constitutionally.\u201d MPLT, per the CNMI Constitution, invests money from DPL leases for the Northern Marianas Descent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is big news,\u201d Teregeyo told Saipan Tribune in an interview.<\/p>\n
She added that DPL is undergoing an audit under Deloitte and Touche right now and \u201cany surplus determined from the audit will again be remitted to MPLT.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the main criticisms of DPL in the past is that we don\u2019t transfer money to MPLT. So we are taking care of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to its most recent audit for fiscal year 2014, DPL\u2019s \u201cdeposits with the bank\u201d amounted to $1,288,552 and $1,784,475 as of Sept. 30, 2014 and 2013, respectively.<\/p>\n
DPL signed a depository and non-withdrawal agreement with the bank in October 2004, which requires the bank to disburse $30,000 per month to DPL beginning the effective date of the agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cDPL maintained deposits in the Bank of Saipan. On April 30, 2002, the bank went into receivership. On May 27, 2003, the bank officially reopened for business; however, DPL has been restricted from full access to the deposits held at the bank. <\/p>\n
The bank agreement ties into the bank\u2019s collapse and receivership in the early 2000s and the issue of funds held at the bank in the 1990s for the former public lands body that were never remitted to MPLT.<\/p>\n
The former public lands body had built up a sizeable amount of money at Bank of Saipan, reported to amount to some $11 million by the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve contended that it should have been remitted during the \u201990s. It shouldn\u2019t have been built up there,\u201d MPLT board consultant Bruce MacMillan told Saipan Tribune. \u201cThe constitution is very simple. It simply says that the monies collected from the public land leases, less their expenses to their administration, is to be paid to MPLT annually.\u201d<\/p>\n
The constitution was later amended so that \u201cadministration\u201d includes DPL\u2019s homestead program, through a constitutional convention in 1985.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve always used that as a shield against us trying to get any of their money,\u201d added MacMillan, referring to DPL\u2019s justifications that they need to save money for the homestead program in these accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat shield doesn\u2019t work so well given the fact they are a part of the central government and they have to abide by the budget law,\u201d MacMillan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo they are only allowed to spend what the government budgets for them. And our concern is that they built up a lot of cash and they haven\u2019t\u201d remitted them yet.<\/p>\n
Teregeyo, appointed to the DPL\u2019s top post last February, also said these funds \u201cshouldn\u2019t have been under DPL\u2019s custody,\u201d saying she did not know, when asked, why the funds were held. She acknowledged that this was beyond her time at the post.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should have been forwarded to MPLT. Because when MPLT received this money, they invested it at a higher rate\u2026way more than the 1 percent that we collect,\u201d Teregeyo told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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