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‘BOOST program already ended, but evaluation is ongoing’
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Posted on Apr 25 2023
Gov. Arnold I. Palacios said yesterday that the Building Optimism, Opportunities, and Stability Together, or BOOST grant program of the previous administration, is already ended or has been stopped.
In response to Saipan Tribune’s inquiry about BOOST program, Palacios, however, disclosed that the evaluation and the assessment of the program’s effectiveness is still ongoing.
He said the Department of Finance has reached out to all recipients and that the program’s administrator, Bank of Saipan, is also obligated under the agreement that the Commonwealth signed with them to do just that too.
“…It got terminated right after the election or in December,” the governor said.
Palacios said Finance is reaching out to some of the recipients to make sure that the government’s financial assistance that was provided under that program are being used as originally intended.
“And I think even Bank of Saipan, the manager of that program, is also obligated to do that to make sure that those funds didn’t just disappear for nothing,” he said.
Palacios said they want to make sure that the funds are actually being used by businesses that opened up or existing businesses that received those funds are using the money according to the business plans and purposes that they were intended to.
Palacios said they also reached out to the federal government Treasury and even the Office of Insular Affairs, asking them to assist the government in forensic audits on the way the BOOST program was rolled out, whether the practices were legal, legitimate, and reasonable.
The governor disclosed that they just received word that federal partners will be visiting the CNMI next month to discuss the terms and the scope of work for the forensic audits. “It’s a work in progress, so to speak,” he said.
Last March, acting Finance secretary Tracy B. Norita they said are looking at recoupment of funds from businesses that were not supposed to receive BOOST money.
BOOST is a project of the previous Office of the Governor, Finance, and Department of Commerce that aimed to provide financial assistance to CNMI businesses and non-profit organizations.
