Flashback July 28, 1999-2003

Gov’t owes CUC $6.8M
[/B] In yet another sign of deepening financial woes of the CNMI, the government has yet to pay the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation some $6.8 million in utility bills accumulated over the last six months. The public utility firm has been trying to collect the overdue charges by coming up with a payment schedule favorable to the Tenorio administration. The debt is the largest so far incurred by the government to CUC, according to officials.

Education Commissioner Rita H. Inos said yesterday the Public School System considers minimizing its school bus operations by limiting the transportation service only to students who live long distance away from their schools. Inos said limiting the school bus use may be a more acceptable alternative to a proposal seeking to charge students for the ride.

Rosario Elameto was elected yesterday as new chair of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation Board of Directors, replacing Juan S. Dela Cruz who resigned last month from the policy-making body. Elameto, who has represented Carolinian and Women to the board since 1994, won majority of the votes during a CUC board meeting yesterday which also saw the swearing-in of three new directors.

New FTZ bill faces risk of veto again[/B]

Legislation creating free trade zones in the Northern Marianas is again at risk of getting vetoed by Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio as lawmakers have insisted on some provisions that he has found problematic when the proposal was first enacted last year. The House of Representatives yesterday accepted Senate amendment to HB 12-11 allowing mayors of Rota and Tinian control over public lands that can be designated as special economic sites, citing the need to expedite passage of the much-delayed measure.

More than two years since the Tenorio Administration inherited an enormous budget deficit amidst dropping government revenues, the Commonwealth’s finance managers revealed the CNMI’s fiscal house has been fixed although earnings continue to be lower compared with the 1997 level. Finance Secretary Lucy Nielsen said the CNMI is starting to reap the fruits of measures installed since Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio assumed the gubernatorial seat in 1998, through stabilizing revenue collection and prompt release of tax refunds and rebates this year.

Investigations by the United States House Committee on Resources have alleged that former Insular Affairs Director Allen P. Stayman has committed perjury in the testimony he submitted before the investigating panel last week, according to the Evans-Novak Political Report. Despite being found to have violated federal laws, Stayman, who announced his retirement shortly after the investigating team subpoenaed documents and hard drives, has been ironically awarded a top ambassadorship at the State Department.

Apologize, withdraw complaint[/B]

The Attorney General’s Office must withdraw its complaint against the Marianas Public Lands Authority and issue a public apology by tomorrow over its recent decision to intervene for the Marianas Public Lands Trust in its pending lawsuit against the lands authority. This was the gist of a July 21, 2003, letter that MPLA’s independent legal counsel Matthew Gregory wrote to the AGO on behalf of his client.

The Maryland-based proponent for a $50-million Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant on Saipan is now rethinking about its proposal following a recent visit to the island, according to the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. CUC board chair Herman P. Sablan disclosed in an interview that, in a recent onsite inspection, Sea Solar Power International president Robert J. Nicholson III found the island location to be different from what it had expected.