With millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funds and a timeline of December 2026 to use it, the movement of those monies remains under the watchful eye of the Guam Legislature. The law mandates a monthly spending report be submitted to the legislative body, detailing the allocation of funds by the governor and total amounts spent along with what the money was specifically used toward.

Government officials are now going back and forth over over the spending.

Despite giving credit to the administration for abiding by the law, the latest American Rescue Plan spending report coming out of Adelup has some senators calling for more transparency. Among them, Senator Chris Barnett, who says he wants more detailed documentation, telling KUAM News, “You know the saying 'The devil’s in the details'? When you’re looking at expenditures like $1.8 million in miscellaneous spent out of the Governor’s Office, of course, as the people’s senator, that just makes me want to ask more questions.

"I think it’s unfortunate that we don’t get these reports with all the documentation we need up front - instead, the administration says to go to the Department of Administration and hack into the AS/400 computer system or send a [Freedom of Information Act request]."

Barnett scrutinized the use of fund for items marked “miscellaneous” and “contracts” in the report, asking why there must be an added step to access information that he feels should already be given up front. “I think the public needs to get the truth in a way that’s easier. The average Joe and Josepha Cruz out there can’t send a FOIA that can’t go to DOA and hack into the AS/400 system, and frankly, I don’t think senators have to do that too, because we represent the people," he shared.

But the director at the Bureau of Budget & Management Research, Lester Carlson, is firing back at the senator’s comments, criticizing Barnett for not accessing the information that he says is readily available to him and his staff.

“We’re going to give you Page 180 from the Budget Act, and it provides the tools for the senators because this covers the 36th and 37th Guam Legislature and the Office of Finance and Budget the ability to do this on their own. So, why would I want to do something that they are perfectly capable of and have statutory authority to do?" questioned Carlson.

He further told KUAM it is the Office of Technology - not DOA - that gives senators and their personnel access to the AS/400 system. “Does the senator want, in this digital age, to do something I’m ill-prepared or, quite frankly, totally opposed to? I don’t want to do his work for him. He has nine people; we’ll send you the list. He could designate any one of those people to get the AS/400 access so that he can look at whatever it is that he feels needs to get looked at and take it from there.”

Directly addressing the terms Barnett took issue with, Carlson says the AS/400 contains all the information Barnett needs, inclusive of contracts, its vendors, and dollar amounts. As for unspent money allocated to contracts, he says it means agencies have not spent arp funds on anything contractual, and regarding miscellaneous.

“It’s an appropriate word to use," said the director. "Anything that’s not covered by what it is that already established the categories.”

“He’s the person that needs to step up instead of writing memo after memo after memo, when in fact, he has a hammer in hand, but he doesn’t know how to use it—and it’s somebody else’s fault—I don’t think so."

Still, Barnett questions, even with access, how digestible is that report for the island community, noting, “The law allows basically for me to send a staffer or myself to DOA to learn how to use the AS/400 system, which is a very old, antiquated computer system - and the thing about that is, I don’t know if the average person can get into that computer system and understand what they’re looking at. I look at a lot of documents, and I just don’t even know if me going into the AS/400 if I could figure it out.”

Carlson adds that Senator Barnett is making it a bigger problem than it needs to be, calling for the senator to "do the work", this as the governor’s director of communications, Krystal Paco-San Agustin told KUAM, "We have until December 2024 to obligate our ARP funding and up to December 2026 to expend it. Additionally, we have sent all reports to the legislature, as required.”

In the meantime, Senator Barnett says he plans on submitting a FOIA request to obtain the documents so “the people of Guam could find out where the money is going.”