Transition team to meet with key govt officials this week

After undergoing ethics briefing and training, members of the transition committee of the incoming administration of Benigno Fitial and Timothy Villagomez would be meeting with key government officials beginning this week to ensure a smooth takeover of the CNMI government.

Villagomez said the transition committee has formed 16 sub-committees tasked to look into situations at the different government agencies.

Villagomez said each sub-committee already has its respective members and chairpersons. Covenant Party chairman Martin Manglona has been designated overall chairman of the transition committee.

The incoming lieutenant governor said the committees would work with incumbent department heads to identify problems they are facing, as well as potential solutions to those problems. The transition committee’s mission also aims to ensure the continuity of governance.

Villagomez said the Babauta administration has expressed cooperation with the transition committee, disclosing that incumbent Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente would also join the committee’s meetings with certain department heads.

Villagomez said the committee has been tasked to complete its reports by Dec. 30, so that he and governor-elect Fitial could review the findings before they assume the CNMI government’s top executive posts this coming January.

Villagomez’s brother, former Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin P. Villagomez, heads the incoming administration’s inauguration committee. Fitial and Timothy Villagomez’s inauguration as the CNMI’s governor and lieutenant governor, respectively, has been set on Jan. 9, 2006.

Shortly after claiming victory in a close gubernatorial race, Fitial and Villagomez raised a call for unity among its supporters and political opponents and urged everyone to set politics aside amid hard economic times.

Fitial said his administration’s focus would be on the CNMI’s economy, adding that a vibrant economy entails the provision of better education and public services to the Commonwealth people. The governor-elect said he would meet with the CNMI’s business leaders to ask them for support for his administration, “so we can help them continue to do business in the CNMI.”

Fitial also said he would meet with potential investors from Japan, Hong Kong and Korea to invite them to do business in the CNMI.