“LETTING go of over 600 American Rescue Plan Act-funded government employees is absolutely the most painful decision I had to make — that is not an easy thing to do,” Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said on Tuesday.
He was responding to Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero’s stating that 500 ARPA-funded government employees lost their jobs even though there was $93.4 million in ARPA funds available as of May 31, 2023.
“She said I ended up firing 500 people,” the governor said; “no, I ended up terminating over 600 people.”
“Let me be very frank with my dear president of the Senate,” Palacios added; “if she sees, or she knows of a checking account number [with] $93 million of ARPA funding, please let me know. Whether it’s in Bank of Guam or First Hawaiian Bank. Because what she is looking…at is actually the budgetary spending, that was the $93 million.”
Citing information provided by Secretary of Finance Tracy Norita, the governor said, “We only actually have $24 million of ARPA funds. We still must deal with health insurance payments, Medicaid expenses, and a whole slew of things that we still need to pay. We are still going to pay some of the commitments the previous secretary of Finance made…with all of the obligations, if we make payments, we will be in a deficit immediately.”
He said three months into his administration, the new Finance secretary and all of his financial advisors told him that if he didn’t let go of the ARPA-funded employees by April or May, he would end up figuring how to pay those folks with local funds.
“There is no ARPA fund,” Palacios reiterated. “If there was ARPA, we will not be in this situation…. Let me say this, $200 million of ARPA funds was transferred out of the federal accounts to local accounts. We are still struggling, trying to figure it out, because the funds are co-mingled. You don’t really have those funds, the secretary of Finance told me, because when you looked at the books, just the booking and obligations that really need to be paid off, there really isn’t.”
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios listens to a reporter’s question during an interview at his office, Tuesday.
