Acting Gov. Eloy S. Inos said they will open a separate bank account for the stimulus funds so they will not be commingled with local funds.
The CNMI expects to receive more than $90 million in formula grants and an undetermined amount from more than $400 million competitive grants under the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or the stimulus law.
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial tasked Inos to oversee the spending of the stimulus grants that the CNMI will receive.
“We’re setting up the necessary structure. We want to make sure that the accounting procedures and the auditing procedures are so discreet and make sure that the audit trails are in place so that when the feds come in we’ve got things in place,” said Inos.
The accountability requirements in using stimulus funds are far higher than what were imposed on normal grants.
Inos said he already instructed the Department of Finance to open a separate bank account for the stimulus funds and internal auditors will be assigned to monitor how the money will be spent.
“We have to make sure that we have a separate bank account to pay for the expenditures and we’ve got internal auditors that will cross the t’s and dots the i’s to make sure that things are proper,” he said.
“The amount of money that is going to flow and the urge to spend the money fast could compromise some of the external controls. We want to make sure that controls are in place,” he added.
