THE Marianas Public Land Trust has extended the deadline to June 24, 2021 for the Department of Public Lands to remit a total of $5,620,461.
Last month, MPLT, through its attorney, Robert T. Torres, sent DPL a demand letter giving the department until June 12, 2021 to remit the funds that MPLT said DPL was withholding unlawfully.
When MPLT drafted the letter, the DPL secretary was Marianne Concepcion-Teregeyo.
In an interview on Wednesday, attorney Torres said they had to extend the deadline because DPL has a new acting secretary, former Sen. Sixto K. Igisomar.
Torres said that if DPL fails to comply with the demand letter, MPLT will refer the matter to the Attorney General’s Office and the Office of the Public Auditor for enforcement.
In its demand letter, MPLT said it will “undertake all measures to compel DPL’s compliance with constitutional and statutory mandates including responsibilities and that of its secretary as co-trustee/fiduciary of public land lease funds.”
MPLT cited an audit report conducted by Deloitte Touche, which, according to MPLT, indicated that DPL improperly segregated and allocated for itself $5,620,461 without lawful authority. The improper allocation of the amount is broken down as follows:
• $516,596 for homestead projects.
• $4,103,865 reserved for the ensuing fiscal year 2020 budget.
• $1 million in reserve funds from DPL’s settlement agreement with the former Mariana Resort.
According to MPLT, “DPL has continued the improper and unlawful practice of allocating funds for homestead development which has been determined as without authority. The Legislature appropriates funds (including those remitted by MPLT from interest income) for capital improvement projects. Similarly, DPL has continued its efforts to ‘reserve for next year’ funds for which it has no authority either by the Constitution or its enabling act to do. Lastly, as a result of a settlement with the Mariana Resort from a public land lease in the amount of $1 million, DPL has continued to withhold these funds unlawfully.”
Torres said the trustees “have made continuous demands upon DPL to heed its fiduciary obligations as a co-trustee and remit the excess funds to MPLT for investment. MPLT’s entreaties have been met with resistance and avoidance in various ways through the years. DPL only remits when there is disclosure of the reserve funds or those reserve funds are now needed for an exigent need by the CNMI central government.”
