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money, Yazzie said.
However, Yazzie said they usually have the 2016 budget funds before the carryover gets approved. It just didn’t happen that way this year.
John said chapter budgets have to be approved through a resolution and then taken to the Division of Community Development office. After that the chapters will submit a request for direct payment to the Navajo Nation Controller’s office and from there the controller’s office takes care of getting funding to the chapters.
While Tsé Sí Aní hasn’t completed its carryover process, it did complete its budget process well before Oct. 1, according to Yazzie.
She said she turned in all the required documents by Sept. 2 and went back to check on everything on Sept. 9 and was told that her documents for the chapter had been misplaced.
Since that time, Yazzie said she’s taken three different copies of the documents back to the Administrative Service Centers.
For Corrina Chatter, commission manager with Nahata Dziil, the process has been frustrating.
“We had ours submitted back on Aug. 14,” she said about the required budget documents. It was approved but she said it was flagged for errors.
“We were told we had to go back and do the budget again,” she said. “They could have told us a long time ago if there were errors.”
Because of the errors, she said their paperwork at the DCD started late. Chatter said their bills and payroll were affected so she went down to the Administrative Service Centers and tracked her paperwork to the check.
She learned that ASC had also mis- placed her documents.
“We had to replace all the documents,” she said. “It’s very stressful.”
After she replaced the documents she went back and followed the paperwork along its route to the accounts payable office. From there she was advised to write a “demand for payment” letter.
At 3:45 p.m. on Friday, Nahata Dziil finally received its money.
Chatter said they went nine days with- out funding.
“It has to be different,” she said. “We can’t go through this every year.”
Right now Tsé Sí Aní should be going over the housing discretionary funds, according to Yazzie.
These funds help with minor and ma- jor renovations as well as shell housing for homeless families.
Yazzie said there was a homeless family in the area that was living under a tarp and the chapter house was able to get them a shell house — a basic shelter with no amenities. Yazzie said they provide shell housing because they can’t afford to build complete houses.
They just want to make sure that the family has a roof over their heads, she said. There is another homeless family in the area that they would like to help before winter hits, she said.
“We can’t get that done until our funds come in,” Yazzie said.
The chapters are still providing as much service as they can to their communities but say they are limited until they get funding.
A chapter meeting will be held among the Puerco Valley Certified Chapters to talk about strategic planning on the issue. Chatter said other chapters are invited to attend.
For more information: (928) 688-2150