Flashback – June 13, 2000-2002

June 13, 2000

PSS to draw up a local version of SAT9

The Public School System has disclosed plans to create a CNMI-wide annual assessment patterned after the nationwide Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition aimed at putting tabs on the average norm of students based on local standards. Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos yesterday said one of PSS’ main thrusts this academic year is to look at the local validity and reliability of standards by setting benchmarks across all grade levels. SAT9, a nationally-normed evaluation for students, does not really speak of the “real picture” in terms of standards in areas outside the U.S. mainland, according to the commissioner.

House OKs $42K for OES

Close to $42,000 were appropriated yesterday by the House of Representatives for the construction of an outdoor stage at the Oleai Elementary School. The money will come from reprogramming of fund balance left from the construction of Chalan Kiya waterline and the design and construction of Oleai waterline replacement. About $40,500 in surplus funds remains in the Chalan Kiya project, while $1,445 from the Oleai project. The public works secretary is given the expenditure authority under the bill passed by the lower house during the special session.

June 13, 2001

NMI businesses support Motheread Program

Standing pat on its belief that all children have a right to read, the Bank of Hawaii recently extended help to the Northern Marianas Council for the Humanities to support the Council’s Motheread Literacy Program. Motheread, a nationally-acclaimed reading program based in North Carolina, focuses on helping parents to become reading role models for their children. Parents meet regularly, two or three times a month, with volunteers who are trained in the Motheread curriculum. The small classes read and discuss a selected list of children’s books. Themes such as sibling rivalry, honesty, courage, the right to be different and host of issues related to family and social values are explored through stories that teach real life lessons.

Deal reached on three-year stay limit law

The stay limit law will be suspended until March 2004 to allow a special task force to study possible effects of the impending exodus of more than 30,000 nonresident workers in the CNMI. House Floor Leader Oscar Babauta yesterday disclosed a compromise agreement has been reached between the House and the Senate to create a task force that will look into the pros and cons of the islands’ guest workers’ mass departure. Babauta said the compromise agreement also gives the task force 12 months to come up with objective findings and recommendations that are acceptable to both the government and the business community in terms of preventing a possible economic disaster.

June 13, 2002

Disallowed costs in sewer project reach $78K

An Office of the Public Auditor review of the Saipan Beach Road sewer system project has determined disallowed costs amounting to $78,779.93, which the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. has to reimburse to the federal government. In a report it released yesterday, the OPA said that, of the $253,728 in total payments that the project’s contractor received, $78,779.93 are disallowed costs that represent missing equipment, reimbursements for purchases and other expenditures not specifically authorized in the contract, and additional work on the project that were never approved. The project’s A&E contractor was the Juan C. Tenorio & Associates (JCTA) and the project was funded by the Office of the Insular Affairs, which had requested the OPA review.

Money out of idle properties

The CNMI government may be able to make money out of unused possessions that currently sit idle in various public offices. A proposed measure seeking the disposal of unnecessary government properties through a state-sponsored auction hurdled the Senate last week. The proposed measure offers a light in the horizon for the cash-strapped government, which now explores other funding source amid the slowdown in economic activities. Senator Diego M. Songao, proponent of Senate Bill 13-57, said the Commonwealth may generate additional money from the large amount of surplus property belonging to and no longer needed by the government.