THE House Special Committee on Federal Assistance & Disaster-Related Funding on Tuesday agreed to subpoena former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and other previous officials involved in the implementation of the $17 million Building Optimism, Opportunities and Stability Together or BOOST program last year.
The panel members also stated they will also “go after” those who received money from the program, which was funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, especially the 30 awardees who have not responded to the Department of Finance’s request for documents.
Present in the meeting at 2 p.m. in the House chamber were the special committee chairman, Rep. Ralph N. Yumul; the vice chairman, House Floor Leader Edwin Propst; and members, Reps. Marissa Flores, Blas Jonathan Attao, Vicente Camacho and John Paul Sablan.
They all voted in favor of Camacho’s motion to subpoena Torres, former Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, former Department of Commerce-Economic Development Director Jesus Taisague, former Office of the Governor Chief of Staff William Castro, and BOOST contractors Robert Travilla, Salina Sapp and Shane Villanueva.
Yumul said the subpoenas will be issued at a later date.
Attao said some businesses that received BOOST funds have closed already. He wants to know if these “fly-by-night” businesses have paid taxes. “We should definitely go after these businesses,” he added.
Propst said he was informed by Finance that 30 businesses “did not respond at all” to the request for documents pertaining to BOOST awards.
He said BOOST recipients that signed the notice of award were supposed to follow its terms and conditions.
Moreover, he said, BOOST awardees are required to return the full amount if they violate any of the conditions, one of which is to spend the federal money on their businesses.
“So we are certainly not going to take anything lightly. We are going to get the documents that we require, and those 30-some companies that never submitted anything to Finance I hope they are watching and listening. We will be coming after you if you do not turn in those documents that were requested by Finance,” Propst said.
“Come hell or high water, we will find and we will get them,” he added.
Flores said they must also “bring in” the resident agents of those who were “BOOSTed.”
“Somebody needs to be held responsible. We will not rest until we look into how every penny of the BOOST funds have been spent,” Flores said.
She said she had conversations “with those that were BOOSTed but did not use the funds for their intended purpose…. This is even more reason for us to proceed and ensure that we also conduct our due diligence for the people of the Commonwealth.”
She said the U.S. government provided the CNMI with federal funds “to ensure that we could survive during the pandemic, and we did.”
“We are still suffering, but we need to make sure that all the money that was not spent accordingly is collected, and that nobody is above the law,” Flores said.
