Rabauliman hopes Arts Council grant payments improve under MVA

Department of Community and Cultural Affairs Secretary Francisco Rabauliman hopes the transfer of the Commonwealth Council for Arts & Culture to the Marianas Visitors Authority will help improve the processing of grants and payments to local artists and performers, acknowledging that delays have occurred at several stages of the existing system.

Rabauliman, who served as expenditure authority for the Arts Council while it was under DCCA, said processing artist grants involved multiple levels of review before payments could be disbursed.

“The Council for the Arts, I spent a lot of time working with it, in particular trying to make the grants available to the artists,” Rabauliman told Marianas Press.

He said grant approvals were handled at the Arts Council executive director and board levels, while his role as expenditure authority involved an additional review to ensure requirements were in place before requests were forwarded to the Department of Finance for payment.

According to Rabauliman, applications exceeding $5,000 required the Arts Council board to convene and review them. Applications subsequently went through additional government review and approval before reaching Finance.

The process did not end there.

Rabauliman said drawdowns were themselves time-consuming and, once submitted to the grantor, could face another review period of up to 30 days.

“The grantor has 30 days as well to review before they approve the actual drawdown of the funding,” he said. “So each, almost in each and every step, there's at least two weeks, if not more.”

Rabauliman acknowledged there were delays within the Arts Council, which he said was short-staffed, but stressed that delays also occurred elsewhere in the process.

“They were, there were delays there. And then on top of that, there were other delays throughout the process,” he said.

His comments come as the government has begun implementing Executive Order 2026-014, signed by Gov. David M. Apatang last Aug. 6, directing the transfer of the Arts Council from DCCA to MVA.

As previously reported by Marianas Press, representatives of DCCA, the Arts Council, the Office of Grants Management, and MVA met Aug. 13 to begin working on the transfer.

During that meeting, OGM administrator Epi Cabrera reported that $156,000 in payments from fiscal year 2024 funding had been made to artists, with another $46,000 in payments anticipated. Cabrera said the Office of Grants Management had been working to secure grantor approval for remaining payments and that documentation showing work performed or project deliverables was necessary before funds could be drawn down.

The transition meeting also included Rabauliman, acting Arts Council board chair Julie Duenas, MVA board chair Warren Villagomez, MVA board secretary Joe Guerrero, and MVA acting managing director Judy C. Torres.

The administration has said the transfer is part of its effort to streamline government operations. The Commonwealth Council for Arts & Culture had been under DCCA for decades before Apatang issued the executive order transferring it to MVA.

Rabauliman welcomed OGM’s involvement, saying its assistance could help move applications and payments through the process more quickly.

“I'm glad that OGM, Office of Grant Management, is stepping in and trying to assist in doing all the management of the grants,” Rabauliman said. “And hopefully then the process is going to be expedited.”

For artists and performers with pending or prospective grant applications, Rabauliman urged them not to stop submitting paperwork while the transition is underway.

“I think you should continue, you know, submitting those applications,” he said.

He said MVA could eventually have a different way of handling the process once the executive order becomes effective.

“But for now, I would urge the artists to continue submitting those applications,” Rabauliman said. “And hopefully they will be able to, you know, get them paid out with the assistance of the Office of Grants Management.”

The Commonwealth Council for Arts & Culture receives federal grant funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.