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08/18/2025 - Karidat’s women’s shelter only has funding for the next 2-3 months and could close due to the CNMI government’s delayed single audits.
The impact on Karidat’s community programs was confirmed by Finance Secretary Tracy Norita at a press conference on Aug. 14, 2025, where Gov. David M. Apatang signed an executive order to accelerate the financial audits.
“One [impact on the community] that you can see very clearly is the impact on the Karidat program. Their funding is being held right now by their grantor because of the status of our delayed single audits, and the grantor will only allow the agency to use their federal funds once we catch up with our audits. So that is just one example of how our community is being impacted by delayed audits,” said Norita.
Norita said they hope to complete the Fiscal Year 2023 single audit by next May, the FY’24 single audit by October 2026, and be completely caught up with FY’25 and FY’26 by FY’27. She described the timeline as ambitious and aggressive. However, it could be too late for some programs.
Karidat, a social service agency that just celebrated its 45th anniversary in the CNMI, was notified that funding for the women’s shelter is at risk because of the delayed audits in March, according to its executive director, Lauri Ogumoro.
Karidat provides services to victims from Saipan, Tinian, and Rota, and even funds air travel for victims who need shelter or other services in Saipan. They served 81 children for 6,608 nights and provided 19,824 meals in the last fiscal year.
According to Ogumoro, Karidat has two grants on hold due to the unfinished CNMI audit totaling $434,439. She said the funding is pass-through grants from the Criminal Justice Planning Agency for the shelter and other services. “The staff at CJPA have been great advocates trying to work with their grant managers to get the hold released for Karidat,” Ogumoro added.
“We have gotten tremendous support from the late governor Arnold I. Palacios and now Gov. Apatang, who expressed grave concern about our situation. Hence, the push to complete the audit. Congresswoman [Kimberlyn] King-Hinds has also written letters to the grantor agency on our behalf,” she said.
Ogumoro said they have also been working with Reps. John Paul Sablan and Blas Jonathan Attao on local solutions to sustain the shelter until the funding hold is released.
She added, “The hold for non-compliance by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women due to the lack of submission of the audit as required, has real-life effects for victims in the CNMI.”
Report by Thomas Manglona II
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