Flashback — April 2002-2004

Solution offered to financial worries[/B]

Public Safety Commissioner Edward C. Camacho is opening doors for DPS employees to pursue part-time job opportunities outside the department, in the wake of an ongoing initiative to reduce and eventually get rid of overtime in the government sector. Camacho disclosed the impending plan Friday during a press conference, a move that he said would first involve policy changes. “Our current regulation right now prohibits officers from taking a part-time job, especially if it’s in conflict with our operation or mission. But I will change that. Because that’s one way for them to take a look at the other side of the fence, look at opportunities. If the grass is greener there, they may go for it,” Camacho told reporters.
[B] Prison project lifts off[/B]

Using 17 new, gold-colored spades that glittered hotly under the scorching, noonday sun, representatives of the Commonwealth government, the clergy, and Telesource CNMI Inc. executives finally broke ground Friday on the $17.29-million Saipan Adult Prison project. After more than two years of delay brought on by protests and counter-protests that snagged the project’s momentum, it took all of three seconds for the 17 officials to shovel the white sand and flip them through the air to complete the groundbreaking rites that officially signaled the start of the project. The new Saipan Adult Prison facility will be constructed in Susupe, Saipan, beside the old prison facility. Based on the design of the new facility, it will occupy 106,000 square feet and will be three to four feet away from the existing prison facility, imprinting itself on the open lot east of the existing prison.

Hopes high on reimbursements[/B]

The House Committee on U.S. and Foreign Affairs expressed high hopes that the U.S. Department of the Interior’s recent call for a “simple, fair and transparent” Compact-impact reimbursement process would spell better chances for the CNMI to collect on the “true costs of migration.” This, as committee chairman Rep. William S. Torres reiterated the need to arrive at a calibrated formula that would compute Compact-impact costs in a manner that is coherent, credible, defensible and uniform to all impacted entities-Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas. “To do otherwise would be to continue with the status quo in condoning the practice of the past that awards impact grant based on an index that may or may not muster statistical scrutiny,” Torres said in a letter to Insular Affairs Deputy Assistant Secretary David B. Cohen.

The Babauta administration has no intention of deliberately keeping the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. in the dark about the proposed Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant. Rather, the proposal of the Maryland-based Sea Solar Power International to set up such a plant on Saipan is still a tentative matter and the Memorandum of Understanding that Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed with the company is intended to just allow the firm to come over and check the CNMI for such a project. These were stressed by acting Gov. Diego T. Benavente in reaction to CUC board member Jack Borja’s concern that the utility company was not consulted on the proposed $50-million OTEC plant on Saipan.

OPA cites Babauta for expenditure violation when he was resident rep[/B]

The Office of the Public Auditor has cited Gov. Juan N. Babauta for violating several statutes, including exceeding his budget appropriation, during his term as CNMI Resident Representative to Washington D. C. in 1998 and 1999. The management letter, released by the OPA Tuesday, disclosed that following extensive research and analyses of the collated documents, the Washington Resident’s Office had expended its funds beyond its annual appropriated budgets; compensated two employees in excess of the $50,000 salary ceiling under the Compensation Adjustment Act; was not in compliance with CNMI laws and regulations on travel and procurement; and failed to establish internal control over documentation of employees’ time and attendance. Public Auditor Mike Sablan said the financial audit was conducted to determine whether the WRO had exceeded its budget allocation and if it had incurred expenditures that were not in compliance with existing laws and regulations.

The Attorney General’s Office rushed to the defense of Gov. Juan N. Babauta after the Office of the Public Auditor released its findings that the governor exceeded his budget and violated several statutes during his term as Resident Representative to Washington D.C. in 1998 and 1999. Attorney General Pamela Brown pointed out in yesterday’s press conference that, as Resident Representative, Babauta did not exceed his appropriation and was, in fact, below his appropriation level. Brown also stressed that a legal review is now underway to address all the concerns cited in the management letter released by the OPA Tuesday.