SENATE President Jude U. Hofschneider last week brought to the attention of the Office of Grants Management & State Clearinghouse Administrator Epiphanio E. Cabrera Jr. some “discrepancies” in the federal funding report that the agency submitted to the Senate on March 29, 2021.
The report contains the list of grants that the CNMI government has received for various agencies.
The report indicates that the CNMI government received the following:
• A total of $304,516 worth of grants for the Department of Public Safety’s various programs from fiscal years 2020 to 2021.
• $52,017 for Historic Preservation Office in FY 2018.
• $1.9 million for the Office of Aging’s various programs from FY 2019 to FY 2021.
• A total of $7.8 million for child care and development programs from FY 2019 to FY 2020.
• $2.5 million for Homeland Security and Emergency Management’s various programs.
• A total of $10.5 million in capital improvement projects.
A Senate fiscal analysis report that Hofschneider attached to his letter indicates that “there is a total of $18.5 million in grants not mentioned in OGM’s report.”
In his letter to Cabrera, the Senate president said, “After conducting a fiscal analysis of your compilation of all federal funding, it appears that there are fiscal discrepancies that require further submission of financial statements and expenditure reports.”
Hofschneider noted the following discrepancies:
• Of the 866 business units in the summary report, only 794 business units had fund status reports. There were 72 business units that did not have fund status reports.
• Of the 794 business units with fund status reports, 28 business units were not included in OGM’s summary report.
• Two additional business units’ fund status reports were not included in OGM’s summary report.
• The fund balance total of the Office of Grants Management’s summary report, when recalculated, does not add up and is understated.
The Senate president asked Cabrera to “please reconcile these discrepancies and submit missing fund status reports….”
Hofschneider also asked Cabrera to provide “a narrative detail of the actions” taken by OGM in line with its duties and responsibilities pursuant to law.
Variety was unable to get a comment from OGM.
Jude U. Hofschneider
