PSS discusses missing equipment with NMHC

The Public School System has reached out to the Northern Marianas Housing Corp. to talk about their barred status with regards to the corporation’s Community Development Block Grant.

According to NMHC corporate director Jesse Palacios, Education Commissioner Dr. Rita Sablan visited his office earlier last month.

“I did meet with the commissioner here and we talked about the missing equipment at [Marianas High School] and she mentioned that perhaps those equipment, those collateral equipment are still in the campus,” Palacios told Saipan Tribune.

Palacios said he mentioned to Sablan that they already paid $69,000 to U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“They said they were going to look for the equipment first before they do anything about…I asked them if they can pay us too but they said they don’t have the funds,” Palacios said.

NMHC informed PSS last month that they are being disallowed from applying for future CDBG funds and that the corporation will not accept any future CDBG funding applications from PSS “until further notice.”

This was due to the loss of MHS Building J collateral equipment that NMHC funded back in 2008. During an inventory check in 2010, NMHC was unable to find the equipment such as laptops, desktops, projectors, and chairs that amount to $69,000.

PSS was also cited for it failure to construct the Saipan Southern High School swimming pool that NMHC funded in 2013.

“We got the CDBG, and then they apply for the grant so they have to follow the sub-recipient agreement. By them not following it, NMHC ended up being penalized for the missing equipment. Somebody had to pay HUD back. HUD said they don’t really care who pays it back, they want the money now so we used our own money. HUD also mentioned we can’t use federal funds to pay back the $69,000, ‘you have to use your own money,’” Palacios said.

“That’s money that’s coming from our operations, so of course we want to be reimbursed for using our money because we didn’t lose the equipment,” he added.

Palacios said Sablan will work with MHS to locate the missing equipment.

“She’s going to…look for the missing equipment and I think she’s also going to look into their procurement people to see their documentation on the missing items,” Palacios said.

If the missing equipment have already been disposed of, Palacios said there will still have to be documentations of those equipment. Affidavits of the disposal may then be submitted to HUD.

“I’m sure if maybe they did find some of those, HUD can credit us some of the missing ones that we paid for and add that to our CDB grant but it’s on them now to show us the documentation. Because they are saying that they disposed of some of them but there is no paperwork, there’s no paper trail to prove that they did,” Palacios said.