‘IPI construction ahead of schedule’

Eric Poon, who is head honcho of construction Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC’s casino-resort project in Garapan, has assured the Commonwealth Casino Commission that they are ahead of schedule and will soon complete the project.

Speaking at CCC board’s monthly meeting last week, Poon, IPI’s assistant vice president of construction, said that they are supposed to complete everything in their overall Phase 1 resort hotel schedule by the end of this December.

He pointed out that they had not only completed the construction of the six villas or VIP rooms on the east wing of the resort hotel, but have obtained occupancy permits from the local government for their use.

“That’s one of the big milestones for IPI. Obviously, we have more to come. We want everybody [to] just to be patient. We will get there,” Poon said.

Construction of eight more villas will be completed by the end of this month, he added.

The resort hotel has two buildings—east wing and the north wing. The resort hotel has a total of 14 villas, a main lobby, and three VIP gaming rooms, among other amenities.

For the east wing, Poon said they have already received all the permits from the CNMI government such as from the Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services, Department of Public Works, and the Division of Public Health of the Commonwealth Health Care Corp.

“We all have the permits for us to open,” said Poon, adding that the exact opening date of the resort hotel is up to upper management.

With the east wing already complete, he said majority of the construction work at the north wing has been completed and that they are currently fixing any defects and putting in furniture or installing interior decorative finishes. He said the testing and commissioning of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection system are in progress.

“I believe we are still on target of the deadline to complete the resort hotel by the end of this year,” Poon said.

As for Phase II, Poon said they are moving up the focus of the construction to the hotel tower. He said that they are going to start the construction inside the tower next month.

Right now, they are focused on level 15 to finish the waterproofing of the roof and the cladding of the building façade, Poon said. In the last couple of weeks, they have changed from one shift to two shifts, seven days a week, to try to catch up whatever they need to catch up in order to meet the deadline.

As for labor matters, Poon said they have a total of 481 workers, excluding 15 management staff, as of this month.

Out of 481 workers, Poon said they have 327 H2B workers and 154 local manpower.

The H2B workers are composed of 148 Mongolians, 141 Taiwanese, 3 Thais, 31 Australians/Italians, and four Turkish.
In his update on H2B workers, Poon said they are working with their human resources department this month in getting more H2B workers. He said Mongolian H2B workers will report for duty by the end of this month. Same with the first batch of Turkish H2B workers.

Poon said they are trying to get more H2B workers within this month and that they have more H2B workers coming in this January.

“It all depends on getting their tickets and the interview with the U.S. Embassy. We are still moving forward with that process,” Poon said.

When CCC commissioner Joseph Reyes asked if the reason why IPI has to hire Turkish or other foreign workers is that these workers are specialized in such complicated construction work, Poon agreed, saying that everyone that they hire are specialized workers, that these H2B workers have their own specialties and that the need for these outside labor is because of their specialty.

Reyes recommended that Northern Marianas Technical Institute students be allowed to observe at the site so they can learn how to do these specialized works, in order for local workers to enhance their construction skills.

Commissioner Alvaro Santos asked if there’s truth to the concern of a former contractor that IPI is keeping out locals from the construction work and other jobs.

Poon disagreed, saying they have been looking for local skills and even have their job fair a day of Thursday’s CCC meeting to try to get more local workers.

“But we cannot just focus on one area. We need to go out. We have to go everywhere to look for skilled workers to help finish our job,” he added.

Poon said they are working with their HR to see what’s the best solution to get the right people here. Right now, he said, they lack of those professional skilled workers.

When Santos asked about hiring local workers who know regular simple construction work, Poon said they have done that and tested them.

“And a lot of them didn’t work out,” he said, adding that they, however, did not stop looking for more local workers, even from outside of Saipan.

“It’s not easy. It’s not easy for us to try to maintain the workers’ performance. It’s No.1 at the construction site. If they cannot perform, sorry,” Poon said.

Poon said they have learned a lot from the previous construction phase, but that they have improved a lot and are still improving on how they can get better.

“This is construction. Everyday there’s something new. I’m learning every day from all different aspects, not only for the workers, materials, logistics,” he said.

Poon said they are going to keep learning from any mistakes and move forward. “And I hope people will see it,” he said.

On dealing with the CNMI regulatory agencies, Poon said IPI is very proactive, talking to the Department of Public Works, Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and other agencies on the island. He said they invite CNMI regulatory agencies to conduct inspections several times and not just waiting for them to come in. “We approach them and say, ‘Hey, can you have an inspection for one of our areas?’” Poon said.

Poon noted that they have a local architect.

CCC executive director Edward Deleon Guerrero said the local architect provides IPI with the third-party independent architecture and engineering firm to make sure they comply with DPW and other technical issues.

Poon said without any one of the local consultants, they cannot open their properties because they are the ones making sure they comply with the building codes and have done what they need to do.

In response to Deleon Guerrero’s question about construction workers, Poon said it’s their HR Department that makes the decision on the hiring of H2B workers.

Poon agreed with Deleon Guerrero that the hiring is not “country specific, but specialty specific” as they are not just ordinary construction workers.

At the same CCC meeting last Thursday, representatives of many vendors and former contractors of IPI, who are allegedly owed $35 million in all, showed up to collectively appeal to the CCC to take action against IPI, whom they accused of engaging in a pattern and practice of breaching contracts and dishonoring obligations to licensed professionals in the Commonwealth.