BOE explains $4M Compact Impact funds

Yes, the Public School System still has $4 million in Compact Impact funding from last year’s allocation but no, it’s not true that the current state of PSS finances is a self-created problem caused by PSS not using the funds.

This was the emphatic statement issued yesterday by Board of Education chair Roman C. Benavente, in response to accusations made by government officials that PSS keeps complaining about funding when the situation is actually its fault since it didn’t use some of its funds.

A government official recently commented on the condition of anonymity that PSS still has $4 million in Compact Impact funding from last year’s allocation but due to the office’s slow action, the money has not been tapped.

Benavente said that whoever that government official is, he is right that the PSS still has $4 million in Compact Impact monies but he denied the allegation that PSS is not doing anything about it.

“He doesn’t know that the money has already been allocated,” Benavente said.

He explained that the amount the government official was referring to was from the 2004-2005 Compact Impact funds for the PSS. Benavente said the $4 million has not yet been spent but has already been committed to the CNMI Head Start Program.

“When they give us money, we use every penny the proper way and it’s not that we don’t want to use it,” he said.

The Compact Impact money will also be spent for the construction of additional classrooms at Kagman Elementary School. The BOE chair said the PSS Capital Improvement Program is in charge of the project.

He also blamed government “red tape” and “bureaucracy” as factors in the delay of the execution of the projects, as well as the continuing fluctuation of fuel prices. “We are working with the amount that we have.”

On the matter of the $5.2 million Compact Impact funding PSS is owed to from the last four years, Benavente said PSS has already forwarded a three-page proposal to the Office of the Insular Affairs this week. Benavente said PSS CIP officer Liz Balajadia is on top of the project.

The PSS will submit a comprehensive proposal to the OIA as soon as it has been completed. Benavente added that the proposed projects for the use of the Compact Impact money would be monitored because the funds are direct and limited.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for Insular Affairs David Cohen earlier assured the PSS that it would get the funding as promised.