Login failure for youth's website
Worries over the intent of a website for the CNMI Youth Congress was not the reason why Governor Pedro P. Tenorio vetoed a bill to create it. Rather, it was a simple case of funding or to be more specific, lack of it.
Governor Tenorio yesterday disapproved House Local Bill No. 12-29 which seeks to appropriate $10,000 from the poker licensing fees for the development, implementation, and maintenance of the CNMI Youth Webpage.
In a letter addressed to Pete P. Reyes, chairman of the Saipan and Northern Islands Legislative Delegation and House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, the governor said that although he was in support of the bill, there were issues in it which needed to be addressed first before he could sign it into law.
“The Community and Cultural Affairs does not have the expertise to implement and manage the proposed program and is not budgeted to hire an additional personnel to implement such a program,” Mr. Tenorio said.
The governor also contended that the local bill wanted to source funds from an allocation that was not open for its use.
“The bill purports to appropriate the sum of $10,000 “without fiscal year limitation.” This funding source is subject to the Planing and Budgeting Act which requires that any unobligated or unexpected balance will lapse and revert back to the Local Revenue Fund. A local measure cannot amend or waive a provision in a Commonwealth-wide law,” the governor argued.
He instead recommended that since the Youth Congress is already under the administrative supervision of the Director of the Legislative Bureau, it would be more effective if the Youth Congress utilized the existing expertise in the Legislative Bureau and the staff hired under it to create the youth Website.
Mr. Tenorio said, “Beside being cost effective, it would also centralize the information for all youth activities, as well as ensure direct contribution to the day to day activities from the members of the Youth Congress, who represent the youth of the Commonwealth.”
Since its inception in the late 1970s, the World Wide Web has become an unequaled source of information — credible or otherwise. With one click of a mouse and the simple typing of keywords, people can learn anything from the history of the world to the deadly ingredients in making a nuclear explosive device.
Lately, however, the entertainment and commercial side of the Internet has been tapped. The success of e-procurement sites like amazon.com and eBay all attest to that trend.
In the CNMI, the legislature is currently studying a law that would award to a company a contract to create a Commonwealth-specific portal, which would lead Internet surfers curious about the islands to the Websites of CNMI government agencies, businesses and other content related to the Commonwealth.
