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Manibusan believes Infrastructure and Recovery Program is legally structured
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Posted on Jul 16 2021
Attorney General Edward Manibusan believes that the Torres-Palacios administration has the legal authority to create the Infrastructure and Recovery Program, a new program that will handle nearly a billion dollars’ worth of projects in the CNMI.
“We think that the [Infrastructure and Recovery] Program was structured legally,” Manibusan said in response to Rep. Christina E. Sablan’s (D-Saipan) questions during last week’s hearing about the Office of the Attorney General’s budget for fiscal year 2022 before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Sablan pointed out that Manibusan has already recognized that this new windfall of federal money coming to the CNMI would mean government agencies will be requiring more legal services from the OAG. What she’s more curious about, though, is the broader question of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ legal authority to create an entirely new office, the IRP, to manage these federal funds. She said the administration is moving full speed ahead with hiring people for IRP. “I guess I’m wondering at this point: Is your office looking into that question? Do they have that authority?” Sablan asked.
Manibusan replied they’re not looking into the issue and that’s because they think that IRP was legally structured.
So you think the new office would not require legislative approval? Manibusan replied, “That’s what we think.”
Torres earlier stated that the IRP will assist the Disaster Relief-Public Assistance and hazard mitigation projects and will move forward projects of the Northern Marianas College, the Public School System, Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and some road projects. Torres appointed former Department of Public Lands secretary Marianne Concepcion-Teregeyo as IRP coordinator.
Last month, Torres disclosed that an engineer has been hired for the IRP and that they are bringing back local scholarship recipients in technical professions who are in the U.S. mainland to work with the new office.
