A House of Representatives committee wants complete transparency in how the CNMI government will spend the $36 million it got through the CARES Act for its COVID-19 response in the CNMI.<\/p>\n
Following the Department of Finance\u2019s release of the expenditure plan for the CARES Act funding, the House Special Committee on Federal Assistance and Disaster Related Funding wants a more detailed breakdown of how the funds will be spent.<\/p>\n
The committee, chaired by Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan), met last Monday to talk about some unresolved issues on federal funds that the CNMI has received for help on COVID-19 and even for previous disasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least now, we have a spending plan and makes it easier now for us to go in and see [whether] they\u2019re really following the plan. We can question as how each sole-source is justified. I know we do have procurement rules in the CNMI, but when a large amount is being expended, sometimes, they deviate, and that\u2019s when things happen,\u201d said Yumul.<\/p>\n
House floor leader John Paul Sablan (R-Saipan) specifically wants to see documents reflecting the contractual agreement between the government and the two designated quarantine sites on Saipan: the Kanoa Resort in Susupe and Pacific Islands Club Saipan in Afetna. <\/p>\n
\u201cI just got this morning the plan from the administration for the $36 million in the CARES Act,\u201d he said. \u201cI was going through it, I know that some of those items are pretty much COVID-19-related, but none of it addresses the rental payment or the lease agreement for PIC and Kanoa.\u201d <\/p>\n
Sablan specifically wants to know which source of funding is paying, and the actual amount, for the use of Kanoa and PIC. \u201cHaving this federal aid come into play, what does that result into, meaning how much of the local revenue from the local economy does it free up, and where are all of those local revenues directed to?\u201d<\/p>\n
Based on the expenditure plan, of the $36 million allocated to the CNMI for COVID-19 health care and community response, $200,000 will be for rental costs of the off-site quarantine facilities.<\/p>\n
Not just Kanoa and PIC<\/p>\n
Rep. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan) echoed this and proposed for the committee to also get not just the contracts with Kanoa and PIC, but also all the other contracts connected with the COVID-19 operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cA number of those [sole]-source contracts are going out toward catering, going out toward all kinds of supplies, testing kits, a charter flight, the renovations that are happening at the facility, these are all sorts of contracting,\u201d she said. \u201cAlthough the governor, the administration has that authority in a state of emergency, it\u2019s really important to just bring some transparency to how much we\u2019re spending and to where is the money [going] exactly.\u201d <\/p>\n
A call for the committee to have access to the weekly reports from the Department of Finance and the Office of Management and Budget, as directed by the governor, was also raised.<\/p>\n
Rep. Joseph Lee Pan Guerrero (R-Saipan) said the committee must also be mindful whether a contract had actually been executed. Guerrero wants to know about Mariana Resort & Spa, one of the initial sites identified as a quarantine facility. \u201cWe want to know how much was expended when they were prepping it up, and why was it not utilized? We have to bear in mind that this is a pandemic. The governor has the authority whatsoever to use the facility because that\u2019s public property, money that can go back into DPL.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI do understand that the business aspect needs this additional revenue for us to generate, but we have a huge facility away from the community. We\u2019re talking about safety. So why is it not being maximized at this point?\u201d Guerrero asked.<\/p>\n
House Federal and Foreign Affairs committee chair Luis John Castro (R-Saipan) proposed for the committee to meet regularly with the governor\u2019s authorized representative, to be kept abreast of COVID-19 operations and financing. \u201cThe main thing we\u2019re definitely going to need is a lot of a lot of transparency with this,\u201d Castro said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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