In a press statement, Fitial said the administration desires to have a real partner that represents the CNMI’s interest in the nation’s capital.
He said Sablan has issued “a slew of press releases claiming credit in some areas and issuing harsh criticism in other areas against the Fitial administration.”
“While it is understandable that our current delegate wishes to take credit wherever he possibly can, for anything that has benefited the CNMI, the delegate should bear a responsibility to paint a clear picture for those in the community,” Fitial said.
“We have people in the CNMI who work day in and day out to ensure that the CNMI receives the assistance we need, dealing with technical issues and the intricacies of managing various programs. Receiving federal funding is not as simplistic as Kilili makes it out to be. We don’t just get additional money because his office writes a letter to a presidential appointee. Things are just not that simplistic and I challenge him to prove that the CNMI has received even a dollar to date because he simply asked for it,” Fitial added.
Tinian, Rota food stamps
Fitial said recently, Sablan “took a stab” at the administration for not taking action on his letter to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s regarding increased funding for the Nutrition Assistance Program in the CNMI.
Fitial said there was no assistance from Sablan in the attempt to increase the food stamp assistance for Tinian and Rota.
Commerce Secretary Michael Ada said this was “a problem that I brought to our delegate’s attention back in April of 2009, when I was in Washington, D.C. for an ARRA State Leads meeting. I told our delegate that we needed funding to conduct separate CPI’s for the islands of Tinian and Rota for purposes of increasing NAP funding and we required about $60,000. This was an issue that [the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs] and my department worked on prior to Kilili being sworn in. He offered no assistance, so my office had to leverage lapsed grant funding we had on another grant to begin the process. While I only had enough money to pay for half of the study, I also applied for a technical assistance grant from [the Office of Insular Affairs] to cover the rest. To date, we have not heard back from OIA on an approval of this grant. This is a technical issue that is preventing the CNMI from negotiating a higher rate for NAP, not any lack of follow-through on the part of the administration as Kilili is claiming.”
Fitial accused Sablan of taking credit for a number of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
“In doing so, he has repeatedly denied giving credit to the CNMI government that actually applied for the money and are required to manage the grants,” the governor added.
“Kilili makes every effort to shift credit away from anyone within the local government and give credit where absolutely none is due. He fails to realize that this tactic lessens the faith of the community in the local government’s ability,” Fitial said.
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said while the CNMI government is struggling to make ends meet, Sablan “continues to fail to provide any support to local leadership as he remains preoccupied in his quest to claim fame at the expense of the hard work of ordinary government employees.”
“The question that should be asked is if Kilili is really as good as he says he is? Anyone in our community can see the work that our public servants do, but who is in Washington, D.C. to verify that our delegate is doing what he claims he is?” Demapan asked.
The Fitial administration is supporting the candidacy of former Rep. Joseph N. Camacho.
