A Compact of Free Association between the two countries provides about $12 million annually, and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is now spending $16 million on airport improvements in Majuro — a project that could be halted because U.S. officials say public funding cannot be used for private gain.
A law passed earlier this year by the parliament provides that any new land created through landfills in the sea below the high water mark becomes the property of the landowners of the adjoining lands. A major component of the airport improvements is reclaimed land.
Alcy Frelick, director of the State Department’s Office for Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island Affairs based in Washington, D.C., said U.S. funding rules and the law are clearly at odds and the concern is how to resolve the problem so it doesn’t interrupt the current $16 million airport improvement project and future U.S. projects.
Foreign Minister Tony deBrum, who sponsored the law at the center of the controversy, said the conflict can be solved. But, he said, “We have requested that they identify for us the conflicting laws they refer to when they claim there is a conflict and are still awaiting that response.”
DeBrum said the two governments can work out this issue if the U.S. government will spell out “exactly what it is that is of concern to them.”
“U.S. funding cannot be used to create a private asset,” Frelick said in an interview in Majuro.
U.S. Ambassador to the Marshall Islands Clyde Bishop said, “What we want to avoid is the Government Accountability Office coming in two years from now and saying the Marshall Islands government has to repay the funding to the U.S.”
