Gov. Eloy S. Inos said yesterday that there\u2019s enough room for discussion between the Commonwealth Ports Authority and Duty Free Shoppers on the existing Saipan airport master concession agreement. Only after the parties sit down together that a next course of action could be taken, including whether to extend or amend the concession deal, or put out a request for proposals, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI encourage them to meet and discuss whatever can be improved. \u2026And what is it exactly that CPA wants to see in the next term [of the agreement]? Even before the agreement expires, if there\u2019s an impasse, maybe an RFP can be issued,\u201d Inos told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n
The airport master concession agreement between CPA and DFS expires in November 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still a little over a year to go before the master concession expires. There\u2019s still a lot of room to engage the folks at the airport, CPA. As I understand it, the master concession agreement provides some room for renegotiating, so parties can talk about moving forward. If they can\u2019t come to terms, then that\u2019s the time an RFP can be issued. I don\u2019t believe issuing an RFP at this time is appropriate,\u201d Inos said.<\/p>\n
Barrie Toves, a returning CPA board member and chairman of an ad hoc committee that looks into the airport master concession agreement, said yesterday that the committee is working on a recommendation to the CPA board of directors.<\/p>\n
The draft recommendation, he said, is for CPA to hire a financial consultant to assess certain aspects of the master concession. The next board meeting is toward the end of this month.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are still finalizing the report. We want to be as transparent as possible but at this time we can\u2019t go into the details of the report because it\u2019s not been formally presented to the board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Toves, who once again heads the CPA board\u2019s Airport Facilities Committee, said their recommended assessment by an independent consultant will take into account the major impacts that will be brought by a newly signed $3.14 billion exclusive Saipan casino development agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current master concession agreement does not address future developments such as something as big as the casino development. We need to have a study on the impact of this, as we would see an increased influx of tourists,\u201d Toves, representing Rota on the CPA board, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n
After that independent assessment is done, he said CPA can decide the next course.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s important that we start the process moving, what direction we\u2019re going to take,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Toves said CPA is looking at new models for the master concession agreement, including the ones implemented in the region.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end we want to see something that best benefits the CNMI as a whole,\u201d he said, adding that it could be a master concession or a sub-concession.<\/p>\n
He said all options are on the table until an assessment is made, and like what the governor stated, these options include improving on the existing agreement or issuing an RFP.<\/p>\n
Toves corrected a previous statement that CPA is open to unsolicited proposals. He said he was only referring to ideas\u2014not proposals\u2014on the airport master concession agreement.<\/p>\n
Toves is also a member of three of CPA board\u2019s committees: Financial Affairs, Seaport Facilities, and Personnel Committees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Eloy S. Inos said yesterday that there\u2019s enough room for discussion between the Commonwealth…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[256,26,124,38],"class_list":["post-176609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-casino","tag-cnmi","tag-cpa","tag-saipan-tribune"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176609\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}