Edith Deleon Guerrero
SENATE President Edith Deleon Guerrero said under her leadership, the Senate will continue to dig deeper into the CNMI government’s expenditure of the $481 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds.
In an interview on Thursday, Deleon Guerrero said she would not have created a special committee to investigate the $225 million in ARPA funds deposited in the Bank of Guam had they been provided with the documents that she requested.
She said what she got from the Department of Finance in response to her Open Government Act request was a “transactional list,” which indicated when the withdrawals from the account were made. These included memorandums pertaining to the requests for fund drawdowns.
She said what she wants to see is a financial statement from the Bank of Guam.
Deleon Guerrero tried to ask the bank for a copy of a financial statement but in response, the bank’s attorney, Robert T. Torres, invoked the right to privacy protected by both the federal Financial Privacy Act and the Covenant, saying the document she was requesting is not public record.
Torres said the Senate president should “secure written authorization from the CNMI authorized account holder for disclosure of the bank records.”
Deleon Guerrero then asked Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita for a written authorization so the bank can release the bank statement and other pertinent records to the Senate.
She said Finance had yet to provide her office the authorization, prompting her to create the special committee headed by Sen. Karl King-Nabors. The committee in a meeting last week voted to subpoena CNMI Treasurer Asuncion Agulto.
During a budget hearing on Tuesday, the Finance secretary and the treasurer provided the House Ways and Means Committee an update on ARPA expenditures. Norita said of the $481.1 million in ARPA monies that the CNMI received from the federal government, $420.6 million had been spent, with $61.28 million still “pending reconciliation and recoupment.”
Deleon Guerrero said she wants to know what Norita meant by the word “recoup.”
“Does she mean the funds they are still trying to collect? From whom? Or from what? Are they referring to Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together or BOOST?” Deleon Guerrero asked.
She added that the $225 million account is an issue because the administration has repeatedly said that the ARPA funds have been “depleted” already.
“When you use that word, you mean the fund was totally ‘exhausted,’ ” she said.
However, during House Ways and Means Committee hearings, it was mentioned repeatedly that there are still ARPA funds, she added.
The words from the executive branch and the House committee do not match, Deleon Guerrero said.
She also noted that the $225 million account, which is close to half of the total ARPA funds awarded to the CNMI, “generated income by earning interest.”
That is why she wants to see the bank statement, she said, adding that “the documents [Finance] gave me do not include a financial statement from the bank.”
The Senate special committee will convene again at 10 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in the Senate chamber.
