THE Marianas Alliance of Non-Governmental Organizations is still waiting for its share of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Its executive director, Frances M. Sablan, wrote Gov. Ralph DLG Torres a letter last week, expressing on behalf of the MANGO members and partners, “our concern about the continuing delay in the distribution of CNMI ARPA funds for nonprofits.”
“This is not the good communication and transparency that the community needs and expects from its government,” she added.
She said it is important to recognize that non-profit organizations provide critical services to the community that are not provided by the CNMI government and that their ability to provide these services “continues to be severely impacted by the worsening Covid-19 pandemic.”
Sablan said non-profit organizations need the financial help provided by the federal government. “The situation is critical. The longer it takes for that help to arrive, the greater the damage from the pandemic and the greater the cost and time required to mitigate that damage,” she added.
“We humbly but urgently ask for the benefit of the community that relies on services provided by nonprofits that the CNMI government do all in its power to speed the processing of nonprofit ARPA proposals so that these critical emergency funds can be made available to the organizations that need them,” Sablan said.
MANGO is comprised of the following non-profit organizations: 4H Marianas, 500 Sails, Abigail’s, Amelia Earhart Memorial Monument Inc., American Red Cross of the Northern Marianas Islands, Center for Living Independently in the CNMI, Chamolinian Cultural Village Inc., Chief Aghrubw Foundation, CNMI Farmers Cooperative Association, CNMI Handball Federation, CNMI Horse Ranch, CNMI Women’s Association, Friends of the Mariana Trench Monument, Haggan/Woong United for Recovery, Inetnun Kutturan Natibun Marianas/Kkoor Aramasal Marianas, Isla Montessori School, Karidat Social Services, Lady Diann Torres Foundation, Mariana Islands Basketball Federation, Mariana Islands Nature Alliance, Marianas Food Bank Inc., Micronesian Legal Services Corporation, Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, Northern Marianas Descent Corporation, Northern Marianas Humanities Council, Northern Marianas Islands Volleyball Association, Northern Marianas Sports Association, Northern Marianas Technical Institute, Ol’ Aces Club, Pacific Coastal Research and Planning, Pacific Ombudsman for Humanitarian Law, Rota Island Specialty Crop Association, Run Saipan, Saipan Cares for Animals, Saipan Chamber of Commerce, Saipan Community School, Saipan International School, Soroptimist of the Northern Mariana Islands, Tano Tasi yan Todu, Tasi to Table Inc., Transfer Marianas, United Carolinians Association and Women of Destiny.
On Dec. 1, 2021, the governor announced during the Saipan Chamber of Commerce general membership meeting that he and the Department of Finance had “finalized the awards for those non-profits who submitted applications for assistance and although we cannot award everyone’s full request, I am happy to share that we can support the non-profit organizations in the Commonwealth [so they can] get funding through ARPA.”
Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig, for his part, said the funds will be disbursed in the next couple of weeks.
