Governor offers to mediate in SBDC dispute

As support for the Northern Marianas College Small Business Development Center snowballs, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday offered to step in the worsening tiff between NMC-SBDC and the Commonwealth Development Authority in an effort to keep the federal grants to the local program.

But he said he wants both agencies to meet first and discuss the issues surrounding the planned transfer of the center to CDA as he cited its role in training potential local entrepreneurs on the island.

“I have made myself very clear [ever since] that they should get together and iron out their differences,” Mr. Tenorio told reporters in an interview. “If somebody needs to mediate in the issue, we are willing to do so.”

The governor said that although he would leave the matter to NMC, CDA and the U.S. Small Business Administration to seek solution to the problems, he would act as mediator only as a last resort.

“I will be very happy to be part of it if it’s necessary because I hate to say that not only are we losing the federal grants — [while] it’s not too much of a federal grant or our local matching — it’s just that we need the facility to assist those who need to learn how to establish their businesses,” added Mr. Tenorio.

The program, which receives between $70,000 to $140,000 in grants each year, has drawn controversy in the past few weeks after NMC officials and some lawmakers accused its former director, Jack Peters, of personal vendetta behind his insistence to remove the center under its wings just months after leaving the college.

But Mr. Peters has denied their allegations that he was seeking the transfer to CDA as an act of revenge for NMC’s refusal to give him a $10,000 contract over an economic study he used to administer, saying NMC-SBDC had been a failure in meeting the expectations of federal officials.

Probe

The college, along with Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes and Rep. Oscar M. Babauta, has called on the U.S. Inspector General to probe Mr. Peters, who now heads the Pacific Islands SBDC Network at the University of Guam which oversees all programs in the region, including NMC-SBDC.

Mr. Peters, CDA Board Chairman John S. Tenorio and other SBA officials met last month with the governor to pitch the plan, but the local chief executive had only instructed them to offer a proposal for his consideration.

Rep. Karl T. Reyes, vice chair of the NMC-SBDC Advisory Council, cautioned the governor against such a plan, echoing charges leveled against its ex-director whom he said is “tearing [government agencies] apart.”

The advisory board met last Nov. 17 and agreed to throw its support behind NMC in its bid to keep the center in the Saipan campus where it has been situated since 1989.

“Our official position is that the program should continue under [the college] and that it would be a conflict of interests if the SBDC were placed under [CDA],” the representative said in a letter to Mr. Tenorio, adding NMC and the University of Guam must work together to address the issue.

“We strongly urge you not to make any decision that could adversely impact our people and the students at the college. The SBDC not only serves the needs of the local small businesses, it also works with students from the CNMI in their undergraduate internship program,” Mr. Reyes explained.

“We’re very concerned that this relationship would be lost if the program were under CDA,” he added.