BY TONY BABAUTA – Today I have agreed to Governor Felix Camacho’s request to reprogram $1 million dollars of Guam’s share of compact impact funding to the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMHA).
The funding will be used to supplement any additional local funds which may be available to Governor Camacho to purchase medical supplies for the GMHA in response to the recent declaration of emergency.
I appreciate the challenges of the hospital’s leadership to overcome current outstanding debt owed to vendors and in turn the patience of vendors to continue doing business with the hospital in light of these difficult times. I am confident that Guam’s leaders will be working together in the days ahead to address this debt.
It remains critically important for the hospital to continue providing care to the island’s community and that services go uninterrupted. In the interim, Governor Camacho and GMHA Administrator Peter John Camacho have assured me that the reprogramming of compact impact funds will allow the GMHA to continue operating as smoothly as possible.
Submitted by the Department of the Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Insular Areas, Tony Babauta