GOVERNOR Ralph DLG Torres on Friday signed Senate Vice President Justo Quitugua’s Senate Bill 22-3 to exempt the Northern Marianas Technical Institute from the oversight of the Office of Grants Management and State Clearinghouse.
Quitugua introduced the bill, which is now Public Law 22-13, in January. It was passed by the Senate on July 8 and by the House of Representatives on Oct. 1.
P.L. 22-13 includes NMTI on the list of autonomous government agencies exempted from the oversight authority of the grants office.
The measure states, “The reasons that the Northern Marianas Technical Institute was converted to a government entity was to assist the institute in qualifying for additional federal aid programs, grants, loans, contracts, contributions, advances, direct federal development, or other federal funding.”
P.L. 22-13 noted that NMTI is an autonomous public corporation.
The other autonomous agencies exempted from the grants office oversight are the Public School System, Northern Marianas College, the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., the Northern Marianas Housing Corp., the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Public Auditor and the Commonwealth Ports Authority.
According to the new law, the grants office was “established primarily to oversee federal grant programs within the executive departments and line agencies, not public corporations or autonomous agencies.”
Justo S. Quitugua
