The Department of Chamorro Affairs is working hard to collect money from Chamorro Village tenants after it was brought to light that there is an outstanding debt of $40,000 in fees.
The $40,000 debt was mentioned during a roundtable informational hearing held earlier this week for the Department of Chamorro Affairs when Senator Kelly Marsh Taitano, the oversight chairwoman, reviewed the transition report provided by the previous administration.
According to DCA President Ann Marie Arceo, the $40,000 debt is an accumulation of overdue rental and water fees. She explained that within the past six months, they’ve had to evict vendors who were not able to pay up.
Arceo said the process for collecting payment is fair, stating that they send at least three notices when tenants do not make payment within 90 days.
“Even in my term, vendors have been removed with still outstanding debt to pay back that’s probably going to have to go to collections but at least they’re not just in those spots taking up space. It’s not only rent, but also in water so water and rent expenses are what’s due. And then some of them we’ve gotten to pay up to $10,000 and they were able to stay
16:45]
Chamorro Village Acting General Manager Jennifer Paulino said they were successful in collecting part of the $40,000 from three vendors.
“I would say that we probably had a total of five bad debts. Safe to say, we have taken care of three with two pending right now. We go through the process and we give them notices and then we take it from there. That was just in a matter of several months so far,” Paulino said.
Both Arceo and Paulino said they’ll continue to work with the Chamorro Village vendors on making timely payments and that they are hopeful with their current efforts in lowering the thousands of dollars in overdue fees.
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