‘No more’ ARPA funds — except when there are
AFTER being sworn in, and until recently, the administration’s usual comment on ARPA funds was that its predecessor had already spent or “overcommitted” them — in short, that there were “no more” ARPA funds. Hence, the termination of over 300 (some say 500) ARPA-funded government employees and the end of the ARPA-funded subsidies to Marianas Southern Airways, which charged low airfares for inter-island flights. The administration, in any case, promised that it would issue a comprehensive report on the government’s ARPA expenditures.
Since then, there have been several announcements about new spending items that were, curiously, funded by ARPA. And as of press time Thursday evening, there was still no ARPA spending report.
In July 2024, when the Senate president sought more information about ARPA funds, the Department of Finance informed her that $420.6 million had been spent with $61.28 million still “pending reconciliation and recoupment.” The Senate president noted that the administration had repeatedly said that the ARPA funds had been “depleted” already. “When you use that word, you mean the fund was totally ‘exhausted,’ ” she said. However, she added, during House Ways and Means Committee hearings, it was mentioned that there were still ARPA funds. The words from the executive branch and the House committee do not match, the Senate president said. According to Finance officials, ARPA expenditures were “all over the place,” which was why they were still “reconciling” the numbers.
In other words, a year and a half into the new administration, they still lacked a complete picture of ARPA expenditures — even as they made key spending decisions based on ARPA funds they previously claimed were depleted.
This is transparency?
A new definition of ‘depleted’
IN a media conference on Oct. 31, 2024, during the early voting period, five days before Election Day, the governor announced the restoration of the 80-hour work schedule of executive branch employees. Joining him were some of the candidates he had endorsed. There was no mention that “residual” ARPA funds would pay for the administration’s “generosity.”
The governor said because the FY 2025 budget law did not provide the funds to pay for the restored hours, his administration would ask lawmakers to amend the budget.
It was only after senators questioned the legality of the work-hour restoration that the governor revealed the funding source was not local but federal — specifically, ARPA funds. You know, the funds that were supposed to be “depleted” and “overcommitted” already.
Why wasn’t that key fact mentioned in his remarks to the media or in his official memorandum? Could it be because some of his House allies running for office had been tirelessly insisting that the government’s financial woes were caused by the previous Republican administration’s “depletion” of ARPA funds?
As it turns out, they’re not. And, news flash: the governor is Republican again.
Spare us the lecture
PERHAPS instead of lecturing us about “inaccurate allegations” and the importance of transparency, the administration should address the glaring absence of a public information officer. For a government of this scale, with thousands of employees and countless officials, the lack of a PIO is highly unusual.
Moreover, the governor has yet to appoint a new head for an agency that plays a leading role in promoting transparency in government. We’re referring to the Office of the Public Auditor. The former public auditor resigned effective in May 2022. Why hasn’t the governor nominated a new one? And when will anyone in the Legislature notice this inexplicable vacancy?
