He said the CIP office’s claim that it minimized its administrative cost is nothing to brag about if the commonwealth continues to lose federal funds due to its inefficiency in spending them.
CIP office administrator and the governor’s special assistant for management and budget Virginia Villagomez told Sen. Ralph DLG. Torres, R-Saipan, in a letter last week that her office was proud of its progress in handling CIP’s placed under its management.
She said the total administrative cost for 33 CIP projects was only $714,960 or 4.3 percent of the total costs.
This, Villagomez said, is “surprisingly low” and has allowed for the funds to be directed at actual projects costs.
The CIP office, she told Torres, has authority over 33 construction projects that cost $37.5 million.
Previously, Villagomez said, “not a single one” was under contract while some had been sitting dormant for many years.
The CIP office’s effort, she said, resulted in an “unprecedented” increase in project implementation.
The projected CIP expenditure for 2011 is $16.3 million or 43 percent of the total federal funds under CIP control, and $17.7 million in 2012.
According to Villagomez, “All this has been accomplished with a small staff composed of six local hires and two local engineers. Instead of relying on outside consultants, the administration focused on a team of local personnel.”
But Manglona said the CNMI still stands to get only the minimum CIP funding level of $9 million a year.
The commonwealth can secure the maximum funding of $13 million if the CIP administration is handled by experienced and highly qualified individual focused on these projects, Manglona said.
Villagomez, he added, is handling management and budget and the CIP office at the same time, and “she is overwhelmed by these two offices.”
Manglona said the CIP administrator should have an engineering degree and up to 10 years of management, procurement, contracting and related experiences.
According to Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, the CNMI has not spent over $48.6 million of $79.66 million in CIP funds since 2006.
