‘ARPA funds cannot be used to backfill MVA’s budget’

After talks between Marianas Visitors Authority board chair Viola Alepuyo and Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig about the House of Representatives’ bill to reprogram over $800,000 from the MVA’s budget to subsidize the retirees’ bonuses, Atalig now clarifies that American Rescue Plan Act funds cannot be used to backfill MVA’s budget and he does not know where the House of Representatives got that information.

During an MVA board meeting last week, Alepuyo said that after personally speaking with Atalig, he said he does not know where the House got their information regarding the use of ARPA funds to backfill MVA’s budgets, but it is not true and it is specifically prohibited under federal law to use ARPA funds for retiree pensions/bonuses.

Atalig

“The secretary of Finance made it clear that he did not know where that information came from, it did not come from him, and that it is not legally permissible for Department of Finance to backfill MVA’s budget in the event that the House did successfully take away that $850,000,” she said.

In a statement from Rep. Tina Sablan (D-Saipan), she says Atalig did inform the House that ARPA funds could be used to backfill MVA’s budget.

“Our understanding of what the secretary of Finance represented to us was that ARPA funds would be used to backfill any shortfalls and funds that that were identified from the local government accounts in order to fund the retiree bonus,” she said.

“At the time, there was also concerns about the use of ARPA funds to pay $500 vouchers for tourists. If the administration was serious about using ARPA funds to backfill the shortages, that was their language, then we could probably afford to use the funds that were then being used to pay tourists, to support MVA’s budget and then at the same time, use those local funds that we had identified to pay the retiree bonus,” Sablan added.

Alepuyo stated that the conversation regarding the use of ARPA funds to backfill MVA’s budget came after watching a press conference where House of Representatives vice speaker Jonathan “BJ” Attao relayed the information he supposedly got from Department of finance.

“Vice speaker BJ Attao said their information came from the secretary of Finance and that secretary of Finance had informed them that it was no problem for the House to take away the $860,000 from MVA because Department of Finance could just backfill MVA’s budget using ARPA. I reached out to Secretary Atalig and he shared that he did not know where the House was getting that information from. He claims he never told anyone from the House that he agreed that they could take away MVA’s budget, but more importantly, he was concerned about this discussion of backfilling because you cannot [do that],” she said.

According to Saipan Tribune archives, MVA managing director Priscilla Iakopo said if $850,000 is taken from MVA, it would completely deplete its operations budget, which would cause the agency to shut down for the rest of the fiscal year.