OIA: Governors must enforce findings of ABC report

Office of Insular Affairs Director Nik Pula said yesterday that governors of Guam, the CNMI, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are expected to implement the findings of an OIA-commissioned study that identified the needed repairs and renovations of school facilities in insular areas.
The study, “Assessment on Buildings and Classrooms,” was conducted by the U.S. Army Corps last year and included five phases that require governors to allocate no less than $1 million for each project phase.

In an interview with Saipan Tribune yesterday, Pula said that OIA’s focus is on a healthy and safe environment for schoolchildren, and that should be among the top priorities of each insular government.

“We asked the U.S. Army Corps to do this study and we went to four territories: Guam, American Samoa, Virgin Islands, and the CNMI. They have different sorts of maintenance and renovation needs, but the things we focused on first is the ‘health and safety’ to make sure that we have a safe environment for schoolchildren. And because we’re the one that commissioned the ABC report, we’re hoping that the governors would comply with it,” Pula said after a two-hour closed-door meeting with local education leaders at Hyatt Regency Saipan.

Pula cited the unique situation of insular areas where “decay is very fast” due to the salty ocean waters surrounding the islands.

“The idea behind this study is not only to look after the schools…but to institutionalize the maintenance,” he said.

In the case of the CNMI, Pula disclosed that OIA has been providing CIP funding ranging from $8 million to $10 million each year. For the ABC report to be enforced, governors can use both “future” and “unutilized” CIP monies from Interior, he added.

“I know that there’s never enough money to do everything, so prioritizing is very important,” said Pula, adding that allocation of how much money would go to implement the ABC findings depends entirely on the governor.

“[Funding for the ABC report implementation] basically will come from the future CIP [for each insular areas] because we just started it [study]. But if there are some [CIP] monies not being used, the government can utilize that…it’s up to the governor,” he explained. “OIA would love to have them [governors] follow the ABC report.”

Yesterday morning, OIA awarded the CNMI government $7.4 million in CIP funds.

Today, Pula is scheduled to meet with the local CIP office to look into the status of federally funded initiatives. Although he cannot immediately say if there remains “unutilized CIP monies” in the CNMI, Pula recalled that there was a substantial amount marked as “unused” in previous years.

“In the past we had concerns about the moving of the projects, maybe in the arena of $30 million. They’ve been allocated to certain projects, but we just don’t know yet how fast it is moving. That’s what we will find out tomorrow in our meeting with CIP,” he told Saipan Tribune.

Education Commissioner Dr. Rita A. Sablan disclosed yesterday that PSS has over $11 million worth of deferred maintenance.

“The direction of OIA is that the government of four insular areas will support the plan with no less than $1 million each fiscal year for the next five years beginning fiscal year 2015,” she said.

Is the ABC report the answer to PSS’ problems on repairs and maintenance of facilities?

“No. Because these are deferred maintenance so we’re talking about over $11 million worth of maintenance needed within PSS. So we are grateful to OIA because CIP monies will help fund part of it,” Sablan said.

Under the PSS’ $40 million proposed budget for fiscal 2015, $1.5 million is earmarked for school repairs and renovations.