ROUGHLY more than $80 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds provided to the CNMI were spent during fiscal year 2021, Secretary of Finance David DLG Atalig said Thursday.
He added that the funds were spent primarily on CNMI government expenses, citing Section 603(c) of the ARPA which allows the Commonwealth government to recover and gain assistance through the federal funds for lost revenue amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Atalig said the roughly $80 million expended in the last fiscal year was primarily used to recall 160 furloughed employees and reversing salary cuts.
In addition, the funds were also used to return CNMI government employees to the full 40-hour workweek, reversing the previously-imposed austerity measures.
He noted that 20% of every government employee’s salary is covered by the ARPA funding for as long as the funding allows.
The Finance chief said he will have more solid figures once his staff have fully prepared an ARPA expenditure report on what funds were received and how they were spent.
“I will be coming out with a report in the next couple of weeks with more details,” he said.
In June, in an official presentation to all branches of the CNMI government as well as the private sector, Atalig gave a breakdown of the ARPA allocations for the U.S. states and territories, then specified the amount allocated for the CNMI.
In a summary of his presentation, Atalig said that Saipan was due to receive roughly $22.8 million of the ARPA funding, Tinian $11.3 million, Rota $8.6 million, the Northern Islands $2 million, and the CNMI central government $467.2 million.
Altogether, $141.3 million was to be spent for FY 2021 and $340.5 million for FY 2022.
In a previous statement, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said, “Spend the money as fast as we can, as much as we can to make sure that those funds go back to the community, to provide jobs and opportunities.”
