Turner pushes for changes to proposed PTI board
Commonwealth Telecommunications Commission acting director Adam Turner recommended changes to the prospective board members list submitted to the CTC by Pacific Telecoms Inc., the company that intends to acquire local operations of the telecom facility from Micronesian Telecommunications Corp.
Turner’s recommendations incorporated the grounds raised by Gov. Juan N. Babauta and CNMI consumer counsel Brian Caldwell, pointing out several alleged deficiencies in the PTI submission. He clarified, though, that his opinion is not that of the CTC, which has yet to decide on the submission.
Turner said PTI’s prospective board has no participation of local residents and does not appear to be independent.
“This board of directors is comprised wholly of persons having a direct employment relationship with the owners of PTI—Mr. [Tony] Mosley [Verizon’s current general manager] and Mr. [Robert] Anderson—or a close business relationship dependent on revenue from PTI’s owners—Mr. [Mark] Erwin [Continental Micronesia’s chief executive officer],” Turner said.
“There are no independent voices on the board. The recent Enron and Adelphia corporate disasters have taught us the importance of knowledgeable, independent and strong board members,” he added.
He also said Mosley’s inclusion on the prospective board members list could not be expected to reflect local needs. He recommended that the list be expanded to include at least five members, including several local residents.
Turner noted that Jovino G. Lorenzo—not Jose Ricardo P.R. Delgado—made the PTI submission, contrary to a settlement agreement to which the company is a party.
Babauta’s lawyer, Assistant Attorney General James Livingstone, and Caldwell jointly filed their objections to PTI’s prospective board members list, saying that it was substantively and procedurally deficient.
Livingstone and Caldwell also pinpointed the deficiency in the resume of one prospective board member, Anderson, saying that the document was the same one submitted to the CTC last April 2003.
The office of PTI’s lawyer, Marcia Schultz, was contacted, but she was unavailable for comments yesterday.