MPLA board prepares position on abolition bill

Marianas Public Lands Authority’s board members are preparing a position paper for the scheduled public hearing about a proposed legislation that seeks to strip the agency of its autonomous status and turn it into a department within the executive branch.

MPLA board members gathered yesterday morning and briefed media representatives about the plan, according to MPLA spokesman Ed Arriola Jr.

The House of Representatives has scheduled a public hearing this Friday in connection with House Bill 15-57, which seeks to create a Department of Public Lands under the executive branch of government.

The bill cites a long list of reasons for the move to convert the agency, alleging grave cases of mismanagement and abuse of power by the MPLA’s top officials, among other grounds.

It proposes the abolition of the existing setup and the creation instead of a new department that will be headed by a secretary who will be subjected to the normal confirmation process for Cabinet members. Under the bill, the secretary will have a five-member advisory board, four of whom will be appointed by the four CNMI mayors and the governor will appoint another one.

“They’re [MPLA board members] preparing something. Whatever is going to be said about it will be talked about on Friday,” Arriola said.

The MPLA has yet to disclose its position on the bill. Earlier, though, MPLA board chair Ana Demapan-Castro defended the agency and its officials over allegations of nepotism and misuse of public funds through purportedly unnecessary travel expenses.

The MPLA has spent nearly $750,000 on travels covering airfare, per diem fees, and car rentals since 2004, based on unaudited monthly record of travel advances released by the agency.

Travel advances in 2004 reached $301,644, and the yearly total went up to $406,388 in 2005. For the two-year period since January 2004, the MPLA spent some $410,971 on airfares; $273,100 on per diem fees; $25,974 on car rentals and other ground transportation; and $24,542 on “other fees.”

In January 2006 alone, travel advances totaled some $26,528, excluding the trip to Seattle, Washington by Demapan-Castro, board member Nicolas Nekai and commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero. The January trip to attend the four-day conference of the Western States Land Commissioners Association, which cost the MPLA some $22,425, appeared in the December 2005 summary of MPLA travel advances.