THE federal government did not reimburse the CNMI for the full amount it spent on payroll and overtime pay for cabinet members and other government personnel during Super Typhoon Yutu, Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig told House members on Tuesday.
Atalig said the CNMI government incurred a total cost of over $16 million for Super Typhoon Yutu payroll with OT payments, “and we’ve only received $8 million as reimbursements.”
“So in my book, about 50% or half of that is deemed [non-reimbursable], which the central [NMI] government is liable to pay,” the Finance secretary said.
A list from the Office of Management and Budget shows that cabinet members and 1,747 government employees on Saipan, Tinian and Rota received a 2.5 OT pay, and the list also shows that cabinet members received the highest OT pay.
The OT pay for Super Typhoon Yutu recovery was among the issues raised in Atalig’s meeting with the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.
Chaired by Rep. Donald Manglona, the committee asked Atalig about the reimbursement received by the CNMI from the federal government.
Atalig said the CNMI has so far received a total of $29.7 million for typhoon recovery projects including repairs of schools, airports and other key infrastructure destroyed or damaged by Yutu.
The amount included the $5.4 million that the CNMI government received in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021.
Atalig said there is still a balance of $32.5 million that the CNMI will receive as reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He said the administration will continue to press for the Yutu reimbursements and has asked the federal government to reconsider those that it classified as “non-reimbursable.”
“I do not have the details of the total number of non-reimbursable [expenses]. I am aware of one line item and that is very clear, and that is the overtime pay for the Super Typhoon Yutu response cost,” Atalig said.
In an email to Variety, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the $29.7 million figure mentioned by Atalig is the total cost for all projects associated with the disaster declaration for Covid-related activities. To date, FEMA said it has provided over $22 million in funding to the CNMI government for that disaster declaration. “For the disaster declaration associated with Typhoon Yutu, FEMA has provided over $257 million to the government of CNMI,” FEMA added.
Members of the House Ways and Means Committee meet with Finance Secretary David Atalig, left, back to the camera, on Tuesday in the House chamber.
Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
