Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita appears before the House Ways and Means Committee during a budget hearing on Tuesday.
THERE’S no need to subpoena the CNMI treasurer because the Department of Finance has already provided the CNMI Senate bank statements and other related documents pertaining to the $225 million American Rescue Plan Act account with the Bank of Guam, Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita said.
On Monday, a Senate special committee chaired by Sen. Karl King-Nabors voted to subpoena CNMI Treasurer Asuncion S. Agulto.
At the budget hearing conducted by the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, Norita said Finance “has always tried our best to be responsive to the requests of the Legislature. Subpoena was never required for us to provide or open our doors, or [appear in the] meetings regarding documentation request.”
She said an Open Government Act request was submitted by the Senate to Finance regarding the investment account, and “we provided the bank statements and any related materials to that Senate request.”
The Senate special panel is also looking into the CNMI government’s ARPA funds spending plan.
On Tuesday, Norita provided the House Ways and Means Committee with data on ARPA expenditures. “We thought it would be helpful to this body to understand the type of expenditures where the ARPA funds were used…since we received the funding,” she said.
Of the $481.8 million in ARPA funds received from the federal government three years ago, the CNMI government, from the time of former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ administration, has spent $420.6 million or 87% of the federal monies, with $61.28 million or 12% still “pending reconciliation and recoupment.”
Under the project expenditure column, Norita presented the following breakdown:
CNMI local stimulus — $49.43 million
Commonwealth Utilities Corp. utility voucher program — $25.94 million
Tourism Resumption Investment Plan or TRIP — $22.66 million
Government insurance premium pay — $18.83 million
Aid to negatively impacted entities — $16.26 million
Water and sewer projects — $15.37 million
Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together or BOOST — $13.76 million
Covid-19 response — $5.91 million
Obligations
Also on Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee asked CNMI Treasurer Asuncion S. Agulto if she wanted to say anything about the Senate investigation into the $225 million ARPA funds deposited in the Bank of Guam.
Agulto said, “Everyone here is aware of those funds being used for purposes of [paying] obligations of the government. That has been pretty much going through reconciliation and we are also responsible to moving those funds back.”
Unfortunately, she said, “not all of that we have used. I don’t know if that is even possible. But one of our responsibilities is doing the drawdown for all the government federal grants.”
Regarding the reimbursements of ARPA funds for Covid-19 response, she said, “Those are being reconciled, and once they are processed, the CNMI Treasury is responsible for moving those funds back to the grant.”
“Cash management for me is the hardest job for Treasury. That is making payroll, being able to pay government responsibilities on time, which everyone knows, is not the case. It really depends on our collections as well,” she added.
