CNMI Senate president raises questions about ARPA funds

How much of American Rescue Plan funds are left in the CNMI? The governor and senate president have differing facts and figures.  

NMI Gov. Arnold Palacios responded to Senate President Edith Deleon Guerrero’s statement regarding $93 million of ARP funds available after the administration repeatedly said there is nothing left. 

Gov. Arnold Palacios said, "Let me be very frank with everybody and let me be very frank with my dear president of the Senate, if she knows of a checking account number with $93 million ARPA fund, please let me know…because what she is looking at is actually the budgetary spend plan."

Over 600 ARPA-funded government employees had to be let go after their contracts expired and related funds ran out. 

"That is not an easy thing to do. I want her to understand that. That is painful. That is absolutely the most painful decision I had to make three months into my administration," Palacios said. 

He added, "There is really no ARPA that has not been committed. If there was ARPA…we would not be in this situation."

Secretary of Finance Tracy Norita wrote to the Senate President Tuesday saying her statements are “irresponsible…misleading, inaccurate, and lacking in context.” 

Norita said, "I wanted to clarify though that [$93M] is not cash in the bank that is available for government operations and that is an important piece of information because that is what is guiding our decisions right now."

Norita said the $93 million is in budget and ARPA’s cash balance is $24 million which is for government operations for all three branches. 

She added, "The reconciliation is in progress and that is because we are still discovering unrecorded expenditures and we are still in the process of booking allowable expenditures to the ARPA fund…the balances change every week as the process continues but the most important balance we should be looking at is the cash because the cash is what goes to the vendors." 

The Finance chief invites lawmakers to their weekly Fiscal Response Team meetings at the Governor’s office to be on the same page.

Senator Deleon Guerrero told KUAM that she will be responding to Norita with numerous attachments of her findings. She said Norita’s statement is misleading.

The senator said, “At this point because this is actual fiat currency from the US Treasury, the difference between $93M and $24M is $69M. Theoretically, the $69M should still be in the cash in the bank to reconcile with the ARPA fund balance sheet provided of $93M.”

She added, “I come with good intent…The election is over and being politically correct has no place after the inauguration.”

The senator said she continues to wait on the financial reports she requested from the department.