THE people responsible for the misuse, misappropriation and abuse of public funds should be held accountable, Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said during a press conference on Wednesday.
But he said it will be up to the Office of the Attorney General, the Office of the Public Auditor or perhaps even the federal government to look into the issue.
“I would think that the federal government will also be interested in looking at how we spent or misspent the funds that were provided to us by American taxpayers,” Palacios added.
The governor said he has already spoken with CNMI Attorney General Edward Manibusan about the BOOST program. BOOST stands for Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together. The $17 million federally funded program was implemented by former Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, and was investigated by a joint committee of the 22nd House.
“The Legislature has done a tremendous job with a lot of information that came up, and basically exposed a program that could’ve worked, but it didn’t; it worked completely the opposite way because of the lack of transparency and the lack of accountability…that was built into the program,” Palacios said.
“I don’t want to misspeak, but the attorney general is looking into it. I can assure you that he is looking into it. I’ve talked to him about it, and as the 22nd Legislature was coming to a close, he was actually very, very keen on looking into it. He will be looking into it and, if necessary, recoup some of those funds,” the governor added.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg, the governor said.
“Seventeen million dollars of $500 million [in federal ARPA funds] is really just a small fraction of it, and we’re going to look at everything. I’ve also talked about possibly looking at unnecessary contracts that are still out there, and we’re going to be assessing and evaluating. We’re doing that already, taking a look at some of these big contracts that were out there,” he added.
Palacios said guidance is also needed from the Office of the Attorney General regarding whether or not certain redacted documents from the previous administration can be unredacted.
“I don’t know what happened to those documents. Are those documents still in existence, or were they shredded? I don’t know, but the fact of the matter is, at some point in time, that information will be revealed. Somehow, things like that tend to surface, but at this point in time, this is where we’re at. That’s the only thing we’re focused on right now, is to continue to do [the work]. The attorney general has a case in the courts right now, and we’ll leave it at that.”
The AG’s office has filed a criminal case against former Gov. Torres over his first-class off-island travels, and has sued several former department heads for “excessive” overtime pay.
Arnold I. Palacios
