‘Stimulus payments go out as planned’

Luella I. Marciano shows four stimulus checks for her four family members that she picked up from her box at the U.S. Post Office in Chalan Kanoa yesterday afternoon. Marciano said she, however, did not see her check so she will come back to the post office either today, Tuesday, or the next day. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)

The issuance of stimulus funds to over 31,000 taxpayers, either via direct deposit or paper checks, went out as planned yesterday, according to Finance Secretary David DLG. Atalig.

“No challenges encountered,” said Atalig in response to Saipan Tribune’s inquiry about the payments of the third stimulus. Each taxpayer got at least $1,400.

He said direct deposit funds were sent to Bank of Guam over the weekend and that many Bank of Guam account holders received their stimulus in their accounts. Atalig said they sent the file to Bank of Guam on Sunday so it can process the funds first thing Monday morning.

“That is why when we make the transfer of funds, BOG customers get their transfer fast because they have the same system,” he said.

Atalig said other banks will follow in the next day or two. Bank of Guam sends the file to the other banks and they have to do what they have to do to credit their customer accounts.

“The process can take 24-48 hours for monies to hit their customer accounts,” he said.

About 10,500 taxpayers opted to receive their stimulus payments via direct deposit. That’s for a total of about $26 million.

Over 21,000 paper checks, totaling about $40 million, were processed over the weekend and delivered to the U.S. Postal Service.

“I’d like to thank my hardworking department for their hard work in ensuring over 31,000 taxpayers were paid their stimulus checks [Monday],” Atalig said.

He reminded people that paper checks were mailed out yesterday morning (Monday) and taxpayers could expect these checks to be in their mailboxes this week or next week.

“Keep in mind, we do not control how the post office will distribute and how quickly they can have these checks in their P.O. boxes,” Atalig said.

Saipan Tribune checked at the post office in Chalan Kanoa yesterday afternoon and saw that many already got their paper checks from their respective P.O. boxes that day.

Luella I. Marciano, who was among those who checked their postal boxes yesterday afternoon, said she got four stimulus checks for her family members. She did not see her own check, so she will return to the post office either today, Tuesday, or the next day.

Marciano ran for House of Representatives precinct 2 under the Democratic Party at the November general elections.