Finance: Mini Games budget short by $1.52M

Norita

The Micronesian Games Organizing Committee was handicapped financially to begin with as only a little over 60% of its promised $4-million budget was allocated by the Department of Finance. 

Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita told Saipan Tribune that according to her office records the MGOC actually didn’t receive the full funding promised by the administration of former governor Ralph DLG Torres when it accepted the hosting duties for the Mini Games.

“I had advised them that according to the financial system, only a $2.48-million budget was allocated for the $4-million ARPA grant awarded to Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games,” she said.

ARPA stands for the  American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

Norita, however, said despite not getting full funding promised the MGOC still went $1.45 million above the original $4-million budget.

“Expenditures to date are $5.45 million; the account is in deficit of $2.97 million. ARPA funds were used to fund this award,” she said.

As to her meeting with MGOC chief executive officer Vicente “Ben” Babauta, Norita said, “I do confirm that my office had met with the organizing committee of the NMPMG in February. They wanted to follow up on outstanding payments owed to vendors for the Games.”

NMPMG stands for the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games.

During the meeting, the Finance secretary said she was informed by Babauta that the previous Torres administration promised to pay the additional $1.29 million in outstanding Mini Games obligations to vendors.

“However, I confirmed that these commitments were not entered or documented in the financial system. This would be a total of $6.74 million in expenditures that only $2.48 million was budgeted for,” she added.

The outstanding invoices that remain to be paid include incentives to officials, accommodation costs, performances, car rentals, shipping, utilities, among other expenses.

Norita did say that the administration of Gov. Arnold I. Palacios and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang is cognizant of the impacts of overcommitments in ARPA funds to vendors made by the prior administration and is working diligently to recover funds while maintaining critical government services.

Babauta, for his part, said to his knowledge the MGOC received the full $4-million allotment for the hosting of the quadrennial event.

“Actually we had $800,000 x 5 drawdowns for a total of $4 million. We were over $2.3 million, but we had a $1-million drawdown after the Games to clear most of the outstanding. However, we still need $1.3 million to completely pay off everything.”

He added that in all the MGOC spent $6.3 million to host the Mini Games last year.

In April 2021, Torres committed an additional $1 million on top of the $3 million it originally earmarked for the staging of the Northern Marianas Pacific Mini Games 2022.

The additional $1 million was to accommodate the inclusion of tennis, weightlifting, and outrigger canoe to the CNMI’s Mini Games hosting in 2022.

Due to the economic slowdown and damage to facilities brought by Super Typhoon Yutu in 2018, the CNMI originally balked at hosting the Mini Games originally set in 2021.

The CNMI eventually accepted the hosting reins of the now 2022 Mini Games albeit a scaled-down version of it with just six events and the proposed budget was trimmed from $8 million to $3 million. It was postponed for a year due to COVID-19 concerns.