THE central government owes roughly $10 million to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation and not $34 million, Department of Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig said on Friday.
“Preliminarily, I’ll just say it out front, there is no $34 million owed to CHCC,” he added. “This is an election year and people are sensationalizing healthcare and not coming and asking my office for accurate data.”
Atalig said he had met with the CHCC board chair and chief executive officer on Monday to discuss a letter he received from CCHC detailing funds the corporation believes it is owed.
He added that he had informed the CHCC officials that his office is reviewing the CHCC spreadsheet to verify its accuracy.
In a letter to Atalig on Aug. 2, 2022, CHCC Chief Executive Officer Esther L. Muna said the central government owed CHCC $34.2 million.
Muna said the Department of Finance had yet to transfer local appropriations and American Rescue Plan Act allocations to CHCC.
But according to Atalig, there were items on Muna’s submitted spreadsheet that reflected funds that have already been transferred to CHCC.
He noted that the CNMI government paid for CHCC’s utility bills last year and a few years prior.
“We continue to pay our share and help them with their [Commonwealth Utilities Corporation] bill, as well as looking into some of the things that they did not identify as being transmitted to them,” Atalig said.
