Previous Story
Veiled threat pays off
|
Posted on Dec 11 2004
Finance Secretary Fermin Atalig said his office is implementing measures, including the hiring of more staff, to ensure that it pays contractors on time and avoid possible penalty from the federal government.
“We need to hire four staff at the Treasury Division to make sure that CIP contractors are paid on time,” said Atalig in an interview.
He said his office has hired one so far.
“We’re still in the process of getting more staff. The lack of manpower is the reason why there’s a delay,” he said.
This came after the U.S. Department of the Interior asked Atalig to explain the “substantial delays” in paying out CIP contractors in the CNMI. The DOI said that it received several complaints from these contractors.
The federal agency warned that “if payments continue to be delayed, it can have a negative impact on the CNMI’s allocation of 702 CIP funding.”
It said that based on a review of the contractors’ complaints, “it has been determined that these delays are not isolated occurrences.”
Office of Insular Affairs director for budget and grants management Dave Heggestad noted in an Oct. 21 letter to Atalig that federal law requires the grantee to make payments “as quickly as possible after receipt of federal funds.” Normally, he said, this process should not take more than one week.
Heggestad said prompt payment to vendors does not only meet federal requirements but also ensures that reputable contractors remain on their current job and bid for future CIP-funded projects.
“While I’m sure your organization shares our goal of timely payment, a history of contractor complaints is evidence that a bottleneck exists. It is in the best interest of both the CNMI and OIA that the problem be remedied so that the Commonwealth is not in violation of applicable federal laws,” said Heggestad.
Earlier, Atalig said that delayed processing of documents in other agencies also contributes in the delay of payments.
“Sometimes, it gets delayed in other agencies. Sometimes, Washington’s [OIA] transferred amount is not the same amount as requested in the drawdown. So there are many steps involved in dealing with this. A lot of times we have to wait,” said Atalig.
