The House of Representatives will seek the legal opinion of the CNMI Attorney General regarding cash donations to the Legislature.<\/p>\n
House Speaker Joseph D. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan) cited a $100,000 cash donation that Best Sunshine International, Ltd. pledged to give to the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe latest agreement is we have to turn over the money to the [Saipan] Mayor\u2019s Office,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
What usually happens, according to Deleon Guerrero, is that donations will go to the Department of Finance, which will then release the funds to the intended recipient.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the House of Representatives won\u2019t physically get it [cash donation]. It will go from Best Sunshine to an account set up by Department of Finance and then it will be given to the Mayor\u2019s Office for that purpose [hiring of manpower and equipment for cleanup],\u201d Deleon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
However, this had to be put on hold.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven Best Sunshine also does not want to do it if it is not legal. We have to clear this first with the AG,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said, stressing that \u201cthe money will not come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero added that \u201cwhatever manner or form, donations will not be received by the Legislature, and no, we are not the ones to spend it. Instead, it will be a \u2018pass through\u2019 to the recipient.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawmaker said in his personal opinion, \u201cwe should not be the ones distributing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is not our job, we can look good doing it, but that should not be the case. If it\u2019s food items, give it to Karidat or Red Cross. If it\u2019s cash, give it to the Mayor\u2019s Office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Deleon Guerrero said \u201cthis can be construed as a conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be misconstrued\u2014I\u2019m not saying it is\u2014as some kind of gesture from Best Sunshine because we passed the [casino] law,\u201d Deleon Guerrero said.<\/p>\n
The scenario is that Best Sunshine donates the cash, the Legislature receives, and then it is given to the people.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then in the future, there needs to be an amendment to the casino law, and that could put us in a position of conflict of interest. And none of us will be able to vote on it. That is my worry,\u201d he said. \u201cWe should not put ourselves into that kind of a position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Accountability <\/strong><\/p>\n Gov. Eloy S. Inos earlier said he wants accountability and proper reporting as donations\u2014in cash and in-kind\u2014continue to pour into the CNMI.<\/p>\n The Office of the Governor and Office of the Lt. Governor earlier received a $100,000 cash donation from BSI.<\/p>\n BSI has already donated significant amounts to the government and other agencies heavily involved in the ongoing relief and recovery efforts.<\/p>\n Inos said he would recommend all donations to be coursed through the government so that there will be a \u201cmeasure of accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n For cash donations, Inos said a non-profit foundation has been set up. The foundation will have a board of directors who will then meet and determine what to prioritize.<\/p>\n Inos said he is making it clear that it is \u201cup to the donor,\u201d but he would still recommend coursing donations to the government.<\/p>\n Aside from accountability, coursing the donations directly to the government \u201cis also for the sake of generating reports.\u201d<\/p>\n BSI\u2019s total assistance to the CNMI, including to the government, Legislature, and non-government agencies, has reportedly reached $500,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The House of Representatives will seek the legal opinion of the CNMI Attorney General regarding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1707,1311,152,65],"class_list":["post-209242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-best-sunshine-international","tag-bsi","tag-deleon-guerrero","tag-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209242","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\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}