CIP Office to Senate: $34M in CIPs will be spent in two years

Amid criticism that capital improvement projects move slowly, one of three agencies tasked to administer CIP funds told the Senate that $34 million of some $37.5 million in grant awards will be spent in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 to include the Puerto Rico Dump closure and construction of the Rota and Tinian landfills.

Thirty-one of 33 projects that the Capital Improvement Project Office administers are now under contract.

CIP Office administrator Vicky Villagomez, who is also Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s special assistant for management and budget, said total projected expenditure of $16.3 million for 2011 alone is 43 percent of Covenant Section 702 or CIP funds that the office administers.

Another $17.4 million in CIP money is expected to be spent in 2012.

But Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) and Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan) remain skeptical about the CIP Office’s application and administration of CIP funds.

Manglona said the CNMI got only $9.5 million instead of $13 million in CIP funding in 2011 “because the CIP program is not competitive or managed as efficiently as other insular areas.”

“With all due respect to the CIP Office, we need to put more effort and focus into getting more construction activities going. In the process, we will also improve our chances of getting more CIP funding. We’re losing some $4 million a year, when we could get up to $13 million a year,” Manglona told Saipan Tribune in an interview.

He said the CIP Office, the Fitial administration, and the Legislature could work more collaboratively to move CIPs faster and more efficiently.

Torres, whose Committee on Resources, Economic Development and Programs is holding a series of meetings focused on CIPs on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, said senators want to know “what it would take for the CNMI to get $13 million instead of only $9.5 million each year in CIP money.”

“Some CIP grants date back five to six years ago,” he said.

But Torres said senators recognize that the CIP Office has done a tremendous job in moving projects forward since they the administration of CIPs was transferred from the Department of Public Works.

“We want more details from the CIP Office, that’s why we’re conducting hearings,” he added.

Villagomez said the current status of 31 of 33 projects under contract “indicates that little would be gained by increasing administration costs other than reducing actual costs for the actual project.”

In her letter to Torres, she said “because of the success in project implementation, current CIP staffing and expenditures seem well suited to administrative needs.”

Manglona asked Gov. Benigno R. Fitial to reorganize the CIP Office and reevaluate how the CNMI manages CIPs.

“We cannot afford to continue losing CIP dollars, and if reorganizing the CIP Office to hire and pay a top professional ensures we finish projects expeditiously and receive more funds this year than last, it would be money well spent,” Manglona said in a letter to Fitial in March, but the Senate president said he has yet to get a response from the governor three months later.

Besides the CIP Office, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and the Water Task Force also administer CIP funds.

Villagomez said her report to the Senate panel is limited to projects under the authority of the CIP Office.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, in a separate letter to lawmakers, said the CNMI has yet to spend over $48.6 million of almost $79.66 million in CIP grant since 2006.

Villagomez said examples of long-idle projects are the Marpi public cemetery, Rota landfill, Rota gymnasium, Rota-Department of Public Safety building repairs, Tinian landfill, Tinian solid waste transfer station, Saipan’s Multi-Purpose Center repairs, and Northern Marianas College facility repairs.

She said the root cause of this inaction seems to be the inability of having a staff of personnel focused solely on timely implementation of Section 702 projects.

“As a result of this focused administrative effort, as of today’s date, 31 of 33 projects are under contract and have plans for the remaining two within the next 60 days. This effort represents an unprecedented increase in Section 702 project implementation, as it is projected that $16,327,556 will be expended in 2011 and $17,744,554 in 2012,” she told Torres.

Villagomez also said instead of relying on outside consultants, the administration has focused on building a team of local personnel consisting of five individuals and two engineers, along with assistance from the Office of the Attorney General.

She said the small staff costs the government only $714,960 in 2011 or only 4.3 percent of total construction costs which traditionally runs at 10 percent or $1.6 million.