{"id":398033,"date":"2023-08-16T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=398033"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Close-to-30M-in-debt-to-vendors-is-scary-baffling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Close-to-30M-in-debt-to-vendors-is-scary-baffling\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Close to $30M in debt to vendors is scary, baffling\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fact that the CNMI has close to $30 million in outstanding debt to vendors is a scary and baffling thought to Gov. Arnold I. Palacios.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a press briefing in the governor\u2019s small conference room last Monday, Palacios said \u201cit\u2019s crazy\u201d to owe vendors that much considering that the CNMI had $600 million in federal funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt baffles the mind, really. But that\u2019s the situation we\u2019re in,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The governor talked about how much the government owes its vendors in response to a question about what the administration is going to do with the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s recent announcement that the CNMI will be receiving $9.8 million in reimbursements for expenses incurred in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) had disclosed over the weekend that the $9.8 million reimbursement covers $8,016,548 for expenditures related to building the Alternate Care Sites and the remaining $1,788,972 is for expenses related to COVID-19 testing. The CNMI built two ACS at the height of the pandemic: one at the parking lot of the Commonwealth Health Center and another at the former Kanoa Resort.<\/p>\n

Palacios said they have already been paying a certain amount upfront for the ACS, so the incoming funding will be either for some of the amount that they have not fully paid yet.<\/p>\n

He said he specifically asked Finance how much they paid for the alternate site at Kanoa Resort over that period and how much they still owe the hotel.<\/p>\n

The governor said some of the money that FEMA reimbursed might have to go back to the general fund.<\/p>\n

He said they were able to accelerate the contracting of a single audit with Ernst & Young for fiscal years 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat all those audits are going to reveal is something that we look forward to finding out,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gov. Arnold I. Palacios, right, and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang hold a press briefing yesterday morning where they talked, among other issues, the desk audit\u2019s finding of $11.1 million in questioned costs in the CNMI\u2019s use of CARES Act funds.<\/p>\n

-FERDIE DE LA TORRE<\/p>\n

<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The fact that the CNMI has close to $30 million in outstanding debt to vendors…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398033\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}