San Agustin: administration can use Uncle Sam's money to fund health agencies

The chairman of the Finance Committee is pushing back on the governor's claims that the budget bill shortchanges health agency budgets. Senator Joe San Agustin says the federal government has poured millions of dollars into Guam for pandemic-related spending that the administration should be tapping into.

"If the governor's going to say we need to do better, it begins with her. It begins with her and the CARES Act.  And when we talk about, remember when I talked about the first comment about the surplus fund from 2019 we put it in the budget to give the Guam Memorial Hospital $10 million to help in their capital improvement projects," he said on The Link this morning.

Several other senators have also criticized the administration for not spending the $10 million for GMH repairs despite being on the books for two budget cycles. San Agustin is also critical of what he believes is the governor's lack of transparency over where all the CARES Act money is being spent.

"And that's what really bothers us: that if we're saying that as of August 24, 24.7 percent is total cost incurred, well I'm not going to say they didn't encumber anything at the Governor's Office, but what else is there? What else is left because we haven't received a report, I had to look this up on the webpage of the Office of Inspector General to see this amount," said San Agustin.

San Agustin says he's concerned that the administration is using General Fund money for expenses that can instead be covered by CARES funds.