Revised MPLA abolition bill presented soon

A revised draft of the bill abolishing the Marianas Public Lands Authority would be presented in both houses of the CNMI Legislature this week.

Attorney Howard Willens said the Senate and House committees in charge of reviewing the bill, as well as government lawyers, were trying to come up with a revised draft that would include concerns and recommendations made by government agencies and community members during the public hearings on the bill.

Willens, special legal counsel to Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, said concerns have been raised in relation to the centralization of public lands management and the composition of the advisory board proposed by the bill.

He also reported an apparently “growing consensus that the present structure of MPLA was unconstitutional.”

“I think the members of the committee appreciate their responsibility in dealing with that issue and they recognize all the great concern in the community in making reforms that appear to give power to the governor. Again, this is an effort to put the Legislature back into a position where it can exercise legislative oversight of what’s being done with public lands,” Willens said.

He also said that MPLA had missed the Feb. 15 deadline given by the House Committee on Natural Resources for the submission of MPLA’s financial documents.

Rep. Edwin Aldan, chairman of the committee, asked MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro to provide the House panel with copies of MPLA’s financial statements for fiscal years 2003, 2004, and 2005; budget for FY2006; documents explaining the retention of so-called “restricted” net assets in FY2003 through FY2005; a list of relatives hired by the board and the commission during the last four years; documents reflecting the amount available in the $40 million land compensation fund; a list of applicants under the land exchange program; and a copy of the memorandum designating the board chair to be the chairperson of the agency’s personnel committee.

Demapan-Castro was given until noon of Feb. 15, Wednesday, to submit the documents. But the committee had yet to receive the documents as of Friday afternoon. Yesterday was a government holiday.

It was learned that Demapan-Castro has been on a personal off-island trip since Feb. 13, 2005. She has designated MPLA board member Nicolas Nekai to assume the chairmanship until her return.

Willens noted that each government agency should have their financial documents readily available at all times. MPLA’s failure to produce the documents, he said, arouses suspicion that the documents may not exist.