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FARMINGTON — State lawmakers who gave more than $1 million for the construction of a Shiprock domestic violence shelter that remains unfinished say former Navajo leaders are to blame.

State records show the shelter has only spent one-fourth of the allocated funds, despite getting reauthorization a dozen times between 2007 and 2012, The Daily Times in Farmington reported Saturday (http://bit.ly/1hRWqFt ).

“The complication is not the shelter,” said Ray Begaye, a former state representative who authorized most of the state money for the project. “It’s the wait time in getting this funding to them.”

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Today, the shelter is 80 percent complete, but the site is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence locked with chains. Weeds are growing tall inside. The original contractor, RJN Construction Management, has been barred from finishing the project by a Navajo Nation court order.

Nearby, the nonprofit organization operates out of modular units because it demolished its former shelter.

Before the New Mexico Indian Affairs Department issues grants, it must first see invoices for the work it is funding, said department general counsel Moses Winston.

“It would be very difficult to do any fraudulent activity with state funds,” he said.

But he says the funds must also pass through the tribe before reaching a specific project, and the tribe has the power to block funding.

“I could see that happening very easily,” said Winston.

Begaye, the former lawmaker, believes the shelter would probably be open today if former Navajo Nation presidents Joe Shirley Jr. and Ben Shelly hadn’t hamstrung its funding.

He says Shirley hired attorneys who questioned why the Navajo Nation would support the nonprofit if it’s not part of the tribe.

But Deswood Tome, who was Shelly’s chief of staff near the end of his term, denied those allegations in an email.

“Funds were not held up,” wrote Tome, who said the tribe would not be able to function without nonprofits. “There were requirements that had to be met before construction continued.”

The Daily Times could not reach Shirley or her attorney for comment.

Data from the Navajo Nation Department of Family Services says shelters protected more than 1,100 people ont eh Navajo Nation in 2014, and all but 2 percent were Navajo.

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Information from: The Daily Times, http://www.daily-times.com