Legislature told to back off from autonomous agencies

Various government boards want the Legislature to keep out of their affairs, voicing out their opposition to a pending bill that seeks to limit their functions.

Commonwealth Development Authority and Northern Marianas Housing Corp. board chair Sixto Igisomar said the agencies, especially the NMHC, which implements federal programs, “should be kept independent from the capricious nature of local politics.”

“As much as possible, the agency must function without the sometimes unwarranted interference of bureaucrats and politicians whose agenda run counter to the statutory goals of the agency and can cause problems with the implementation of projects and programs governed by federal law and regulations,” he said.

Likewise, Igisomar said that the vesting of the operations and management functions of NMHC to a designated executive director would violate the corporation’s charter and relegate NMHC to a status similar to that of a department.

In a separate letter, CDA executive director Mary Lou Ada said the proposed bill would directly undermine the 702 funding agreement that led to the establishment of CDA “to be responsible for the fiscal management of Covenant funds separate and apart from the Legislature and the Executive Branch.”

Ada also cited a possible negative impact on CDA’s bond issues and its status as a guarantor to private banks may be adversely affected by such a change in management.

For her part, Commonwealth Utilities Corp. executive director Lorraine A. Babauta supports the bill, saying it would strengthen the ability of the executive director to manage CUC with the technical assistance of professional staff. The bill was authored by Rep. Timothy Villagomez, a former CUC executive director.

Babauta suggested that because CUC is a public corporation chartered to perform a function outside governmental administration, existing provisions of hiring and firing of executives and removal of board members should be kept.

She also suggested reducing the term of board members from four years to two years “to allow a more diverse presentation of ideas.”

Meantime, the Commonwealth Ports Authority said that the bill would adversely impact airport and seaport development and operation and ultimately harm the people and the aviation and maritime industries in the CNMI.

CPA said that the passage of the bill would do away with the fiduciary obligations of the CPA’s independent board and its bondholders.

It said that the Federal Aviation Administration relies on the fiduciary obligation of the board and the competence of experienced management.

Marianas Public Lands Authority, for its part, said the bill would create “an inherent conflict that is worse than the [current] situation… and places an unnecessary and unreasonable burden on the governor.”

“The governor is a governor of the entire Commonwealth, and therefore owes a fiduciary duty to the entire people of the Commonwealth while the MPLA board manages and disposes of public lands for the benefit of the Northern Marianas descent.”

The original bill aims to change the function and composition of the boards of public corporations, to vest the authority to manage and operate agencies in principal executives, and to provide the governor with hiring authority of the principal executives with the consent of the Senate.

Meantime, the House special committee tasked to review the bill, chaired by Rep. Claudio Norita, said in a report that based on the comments, public corporation officials “have a misguided sense of how public corporations are created and their inherent political nature.”

Nonetheless, the committee said it took into serious consideration the comments provided by agencies and revised the bill accordingly.