CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Vicky I. Benavente said of the $706 million in funding received from the U.S. Department of Labor for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance/Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program, the CNMI has a cumulative expenditure of $209 million.
“Whatever funds we receive, we’re trying to give it out. We want to help people with these PUA and FPUC benefits. But if the documents are not complete, if they are not eligible due to their employment status, if they did not lose their job because of a Covid-19-related reason, that applicant will be denied PUA benefits. So, the discrepancy is not important. What’s important is that who is eligible receives these benefits. That’s the most important thing,” she said.
Of the 12,000 claimants on file for the second round of unemployment benefits, Benavente said CNMI DOL has processed close to 7,000.
“We do still have quite a bit to be reviewed and adjudicated, and that is why our communications center continues to blow up with phone calls and e-mails… I want to keep emphasizing that we are moving as fast as we can,” she said.
The two biggest challenges, Benavente noted, have been helping applicants submit the required documents and comply with the work search requirement.
The new work search requirement will run from Sunday, Aug. 1, to Saturday, Sept. 4.
Benavente said several applicants have been visiting the CNMI DOL to register online and fulfill their work search requirement.
“As of July, there were about 69 registered applicants on our DOL website, and as of today, this jumped to 149 in just 13 days. It has more than doubled, where we see PUA and also non-PUA claimants coming in to register for work. So, people are looking for jobs, and as our economy slowly opens, we hope that they all get those jobs that they are applying for,” she said.
Most of the time, delays in the issuance of payments are due to the applicant lacking certain documents, the labor chief added.
There have also been cases where employers refuse to provide their employees’ documents, or the employer is a fraudulent business.
Fraudulent claims
“Luckily, we have received funding in the past to help mitigate fraudulent claims with our investigations unit [and] auditing unit. This is really a matter of getting our numbers to match our fraudulent claims. In the beginning, we had so many [fraudulent claims]. Now that it’s tapering off, we have safeguards, so to speak, that have been working fairly well,” she said.
Regarding concerns of the deficiency between the amount of funding available for the program versus the amount that has been expended, Benavente said, “Is it more important to give out 100% of fraudulent funds, or is it more important to give out a certain percentage of eligible, legitimate funds for PUA? I’m not looking at the percentage. I’m looking at the exact numbers that go out to help our people, help those who are eligible, and help them continue to receive benefits based on our requirements that have been presented to us by the U.S. Department of Labor.”
The CNMI DOL met with the USDOL last Thursday to discuss federal financial reporting for the PUA/FPUC program.
The meeting also emphasized that there are still grants available for the CNMI to prevent fraudulent claims and overpayments, to which, Benavente said, the CNMI DOL would be submitting applications.
To report a fraudulent claim anonymously, contact the CNMI DOL fraud hotline at 989-9095.
