FLASHBACK – January 1999-2002

Chamber hopes Cohen will acknowledge CNMI reforms[/B]

Saipan Chamber of Commerce president Kerry McKinney yesterday said she is hopeful that President Bill Clinton’s special representative to the 902 consultations will keep an open mind and recognize the reforms carried out by the CNMI government to eliminate labor abuses. Edward B. Cohen, the U.S. President’s representative, will be arriving here on January 18 to discuss transition to federalization of local and minimum wage. The CNMI government panel, however, wants to tackle a different agenda which include immigration, minimum wage and customs associated with the local garment industry, economic assistance, waiver of matching requirement for Covenant funds, sovereignty over submerged lands, military land use, 200-mile economic zone, and non-voting delegate status in the U.S. Congress.

The Public School System defended the nearly half-a-million dollars it spent on travel last year, saying it was sharply lower than in previous years. In 1995, PSS spent more than $1 million in federally funded trips alone. Last year’s travel spending was at least 15 percent lesser than in 1997, according to acting Fiscal and Budget Officer William Matson. “We’ve been frugal in our travels and very responsible. Ever since I became chairman, I was very strict with travels,” said Board of Education Chairman Marja Lee Taitano. She said off-island trips are important: they bring teachers to the CNMI, send managers and principals to training and connect the islands to the outside world.
[B] January 14, 2000

80-MW power project junked[/B]

Nearly three years after spending at least half-a-million dollars, the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. yesterday abandoned the initial plan on the Saipan power project, citing continuous economic difficulties that have sent the island’s electricity load growth falling. In a decision met with angry protests, CUC’s board of directors voted to cancel the request for proposals for the 80-megawatt plant that was issued in 1997 to pave the way for another round of bidding—this time for a 60MW generator recommended by its power consultants. The decision invalidated the offers submitted by 13 companies, including Enron which emerged on top in the last round of evaluation conducted last year by Burns & McDonnell, the private engineering firm hired by CUC amid mounting protests on its earlier choice of Marubeni-Sithe.

It was the moment of truth. And as expected, most of those in the audience did not like what they heard. But board members of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation, while not all of them, voted on the most crucial decision on a project that has come under a storm of protests since its procurement began almost three years ago. Dozens of lawmakers, representatives of bidders and laymen attended yesterday’s board meeting which decided the fate of Saipan’s 80-megawatt plant, most of them leaving the conference room aghast — to say the least. The discussion ended with more questions than answers on the controversial power project, which has attracted close scrutiny and aggressive lobbying by some of the bidders.

Tic-toc, tic-toc, the timer’s starting up[/B]

The clock starts ticking today as Governor-elect Juan Babauta and Lt. Governor-elect Diego Benavente take over the unenviable task of turning the moribund economy of the Commonwealth around. Both Babauta and Benavente have promised to hit the ground running. Yet even in the run-up to today’s inauguration ceremony, the squeeze is already on, as the new administration will be coming into its own with a government operating on a continuing resolution. Saddled with unpaid debts and a widening deficit that threaten to hobble any attempts to get the economy off the ground, the general consensus is that it will be the economy that will make or break this incoming Republican administration.

Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio remained composed and firm despite the series of economic disasters that plagued his four-year term, which started with the Asian currency crisis and ended with the aftershocks of the September 11 tragedies. Government officials and business sector leaders have agreed that, despite depleting public coffers, Tenorio’s administration managed to deliver basic social services sans interruption. Taking over a practically cash-less government with a looming economic crisis in the background, Tenorio is leaving the gubernatorial seat without a history of payless paydays.