According to Cabrera, R-Saipan, the House of Representatives is looking into the possibility of hiring someone in the private sector to look for other federal grants that the CNMI can apply for.
The speaker said there are many grants available and all it takes is someone who can devote his or her time to identify them.
The CNMI should start looking for other federal programs that can help fund the local government’s essential services, Cabrera said.
In a separate interview, Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan said the CNMI government should have applied for other federal grants a long time ago.
The CNMI government does not even have to go online, he added. It can just review the catalogue of federal programs available to anyone.
Sablan said the CNMI government does not have to spend money to look for available federal grants.
He believes there are many CNMI government employees who are very capable and competent in writing grants. For many years, he noted CNMI has been receiving grants without needing the services of a private firm.
“We can no longer continue to ignore other grant writers in the government just because we want to give a few people business. We need to recognize that we have people who have been doing that job,” Sablan said.
The leadership, he said, is the problem and not the employees who have managed grants very well.
The administration does not have “to pick someone and give him the money we no longer have,” Sablan added.
The administration and Legislature should tap the government’s grant writers and “work real hard” to restore the government employees’ 80-hour work schedule.
