The fat lady is crying

Lottery Commission, what was that you gave me? It’s sloppy, incomplete, repetitive, up to five copies of the same pages, and not even in order. I sure hope it isn’t representative of the quality of work your employees do up there. I asked for these documents under the OGA.

The original announcement for the RFP for consulting services to investigate the RFPs of the two casino applicants.

All of the responses to the announcement.
• The minutes of the meeting where the winner was picked.
• The notification to the winners.
• The contracts signed between the Lottery Commission and the two winning bidders.
• The actual report of the investigations done by the two winners and the date it was presented to the Lottery Commission.
• The minutes of the meeting where the Lottery Commission accepted the findings from the two winners.
• The minutes of the meeting where the Lottery Commission awarded the license to Best Sunshine.
• The date(s) and amount(s) of payment(s) made to each of the winning bidders.

I received four, five, and six and about 800 other pages of crap. A lot of the pages aren’t numbered, no dates, no initials or signatures, most B2G docs aren’t even on letterhead, although they are supposedly from some of the biggest financiers in Asia. At least Innovation gave some real references of companies they have done work for, with names and phone numbers, some of the big times in the gaming industry. B2G, zilch, zero. Not one company they have actually performed any work for. I’m convinced this is a put up deal and you are their first customer.

We were originally told it would cost $400,000 but you signed contracts, originally for $400,000, then hand scratched that amount out and “penned in” $500,000 plus travel and other expenses, which are probably another $50,000. I guess our Finance secretary could tell us the exact amount since she is also one of the Lottery Commission members and signed their checks. I hope you took out CNMI taxes before handing them over.

Most of TDHC documents were supported with real facts, figures, and actual proposals. B2G, just words, and the first 16 pages just say what services they provide and the “experts” that work for them, even though the three “biggest” experts are not listed anywhere in the company’s online site. Sham comes to mind now, more than when I first looked them up. One company that they used as proof that financing will be available was written on a plain sheet of paper about a company called FT Securities, which I can’t even find on the Web. Must be a big one.

Citizens of the CNMI, you’ve just spent $550,000 for something a high school student, not a CNMI high school student unfortunately, could have cobbled together from the Internet and a few emails and phone calls. That extra $150,000 would have sent a lot of medical referrals for treatment. I could only surmise, from going over the 800 pages, that neither of the two consulting companies actually verified the information received. They just took these documents at face value from Best Sunshine and TDHC, and assumed that the information was correct. What is worse, your government officials didn’t check the veracity of these documents either; they just took them at face value too. Even I can write you a letter, in three minutes, stating that I will lend you $2 billion but that doesn’t make it so. How long are you going to put up with this crap?

I urge everyone to go to the Lottery Commission and look at that report and at the mess your government made out of this whole fiasco in their haste to push this crooked deal down your throats. You need to vote 31 totally new, ethical people into office, if you can find 31 in the CNMI. How come Guam only has 15 lawmakers and their population is three times ours? If you cut ours from 29 to nine, think of the benefits, and the extra money, available to you. Get smart this election. Find out the issues, and, backgrounds of the candidates and make educated decisions for the first time in 36 years.

Gary DuBrall
Chalan Piao, Saipan