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‘At least $800K in CIP money can be reprogrammed’
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Posted on Jul 06 2011
At least $800,000 in capital improvement project money at the Commonwealth Development Authority has been identified as reprogrammable for other projects and programs.
Sen. Ralph Torres (R-Saipan), chairman of the Senate Committee on Resources, Economic Development and Programs, said the total amount of CIP funds that can be reprogrammed will be known today.
His committee held a meeting yesterday with the CNMI Capital Improvement Project Office representative.
Torres seeks to tap “some $500,000” of the “at least $800,000” in reprogrammable CIP money to buy a CT scan for the Department of Public Health.
He said the Tinian and Rota Legislative Delegations plan to each contribute $100,000 each from their reprogrammable CIP funds to Saipan’s $500,000 to buy a CT scan that will benefit the entire CNMI.
“This will lower the cost of medical referrals. Instead of sending patients outside the CNMI for a CT scan, we will just buy one and have the immediate care we need right here in the CNMI,” he told Saipan Tribune.
Besides Torres, others in the meeting were Senate floor leader Pete Reyes (R-Saipan) and CIP Office’s Vicky Villagomez and Jim Stump.
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan earlier told lawmakers that the CNMI has yet to spend over $48.6 million of almost $79.66 million in CIP grants since 2006.
But the CIP Office, one of three agencies tasked to administer CIP funds, said $34 million of some $37.5 million in grant awards will be spent in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 to include the Puerto Rico Dump closure and construction of the Rota and Tinian landfills.
