FLASHBACK – November 17, 2011

Senate to press for budget approval[/B]

Senators have pledged not to call sine die to go into a long recess ahead of the inaugural of the 12th Legislature next January until after the proposed FY 2000 budget is passed and signed by the governor. Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes said he would press passage of the $206 million spending package to ensure that their concerns, such as scholarship and medical referral programs, are included in the anticipated expenditures of the government for the next nine months. “We will pursue it and we will not call sine die unless we have approved the budget,” he said in an interview. Senate President Paul A. Manglona also supported the move, noting that they will try to have the budget in place before the start of the second quarter of FY 2000 this January.

Commonwealth Ports Authority Executive Director Carlos H. Salas will meet with two international rating agencies next month to have its $33 million seaport bond rated. Fitch IBCA and Standard and Poor’s earlier failed to give any rating to the seaport bond. But Fitch gave the $20 million airport bond a Triple BBB minus rating. CPA hopes to get the seaport bond rating between now and March 2000. Salas said the rating will boost the credibility of the ports authority and the Commonwealth in the financial community as well as reduce the interest rate. He will be accompanied by airport committee chairman Roman S. Tudela in the trip.

CUC admits existence of MOA but…[/B]

Commonwealth Utilities Corp. board chairman Herman P. Sablan has admitted the existence of a Memorandum of Agreement with a Korean firm on desalination project prior to solicitation, but said that it had been nullified when the utility firm issued a Request for Proposal over a month ago. In an interview, Sablan said that an MOA was signed with Taekwang Heavy Industries because no other companies were interested in the project. “When they first introduced the unsolicited proposal, the board made that decision, but then after that, other companies came in wanting to participate so we disregarded the MOA and proceeded with an RFP,” said Sablan.

The much-awaited formation of an organization to fight diabetes in the CNMI is finally set with today’s launching of the Commonwealth Diabetes Coalition or CDC. The CDC, according to its organizers, will be a division within Ayuda Network, a local nonprofit humanitarian group. Today’s launching will be held at the Law Office of Robert T. Torres in Garapan. CDC organizers include Torres, Ayuda Network’s Konrad Reyes, retired nurse Greggy Fitial, and Department of Health’s diabetes prevention program coordinator Lynn Tenorio. Fitial, in an earlier interview said the group aims to promote public outreaches and education, and provide services and care for patients. “We want to bring the number of cases down. We need to contain it, if not totally eradicate it in the CNMI.”

Fitial insists on independent audit of Azmar[/B]

House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial reiterated his call yesterday for the Marianas Public Lands Authority to do an audit of Azmar International’s finances amid talks of its mining permit application approval. He said the audit must be done by a third party to ensure neutrality but its cost should be shouldered by Azmar. “I must insist, at the very least, that MPLA retain an independent accounting firm to audit Azmar’s submitted financial statement so that Azmar’s financial capability can be independently verified by a neutral third party at Azmar’s expense,” said Fitial in a Nov. 16 letter to MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro.

The House budget panel aims to keep the CNMI Scholarship Office’s funding but it wants a guarantee that such amount would be spent only for individuals who want to return and work in the CNMI. “We support their budget request but we want the Scholarship Office to protect the funding because we’re concerned about scholars not coming back to work in the Commonwealth,” said House majority floor leader Oscar M. Babauta. Babauta, who co-chairs the conference committee tackling the 2005 budget, said there is a rising “delinquency” rate in students not complying with regulations. For instance, he said that some teacher program scholarship grantees end up not wanting to teach.