by Lannie Walker

Guam - Local daycares continue to face long delays in receiving block grant funds for services they provided to qualified parents. One such owner, Ross White, who runs Kiddyland Daycare in Dededo, says while he did receive a payment on Tuesday as was promised by the Department of Administration - it was incomplete.

White like many other daycare providers on Guam depend on these funds to keep their businesses up and running. The delays have been attributed to insufficient staffing at the Department of Public Health, where the vouchers are processed. This month's delay - which was several days later than usual - was said to be due to a delay in processing of an account for the grant money for Fiscal Year 2011.

DOA treasurer Rose Fejeran could not be reached today for an update on how much is still due to be paid out, but as for white he says he is still owed close to $20,000.

To make matters worse, he says the paper work for November services, which DOA should be processing now still hasn't been sent to DOA by Public Health.