Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), whose request to see the financial statements of casino licensee Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC precipitated the legal tussle between IPI and the Commonwealth Casino Commission, is \u201cecstatic, elated, and happy\u201d that the U.S. District Court for the CNMI has ruled in favor of the CCC and denied IPI\u2019s bid to prevent the release of the information.<\/p>\n
Calling it a win for the people and the Open Government Act, Propst told Saipan Tribune in a statement yesterday that he is ecstatic that the district court denied yesterday the preliminary injunction petition of the casino operator.<\/p>\n
The decision lifts the confidentiality of IPI\u2019s annual financial statements, effectively making IPI finances public record through the CCC\u2014including sensitive financial information of subsidiary companies that IPI represents. <\/p>\n
IPI said it will appeal Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
In a statement yesterday, Propst said that IPI essentially \u201clost today and the people won; transparency wins, the people won.\u201d IPI\u2019s financial audit \u201cwill not be redacted. \u2026It is going to be fully available for anyone who wishes to get this information.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis information should be shared. Oftentimes, IPI likes to claim this is important to them because these are businesses and\u2026IPI likes to claim they are just like any other business. I disagree,\u201d he told Saipan Tribune. \u201cIPI is not like any other business because they are a monopoly\u2014they are the sole [casino operator licensee], and that is very unusual. They want to be treated like any other business, but they are not,\u201d adding that IPI is not \u201cupholding and following\u201d their casino license agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a grave concern. Furthermore, I am concerned that they didn\u2019t care they were violating Public Law 19-24,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
According to P.L. 19-24, IPI is required to turn over their financials to the CCC if requested for review. According to Propst, everything he asked for was covered and protected by the law.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope moving forward is that this sets precedence, that they [IPI] learn from their lessons and that they embrace transparency and come to the light,\u201d Propst said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have nothing against IPI and I want them to succeed. But they aren\u2019t going to succeed by hiding things from people. They need to be upfront with open dialogue with not just our legislators, but also our people,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
Propst already released IPI\u2019s financial statements in a legislative session. He told Saipan Tribune in a previous interview that he got the financial report from House Gaming Committee chair Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan) after showing him the OGA request.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026The public interest weighs in favor of denying the preliminary injunction,\u201d Propst said yesterday, citing Manglona\u2019s 25-page ruling. <\/p>\n
In a previous hearing at the CNMI Superior Court, the CCC noted that IPI is not entitled to a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, or even a permanent injunction because they would not have succeeded in preventing CCC, a government agency regulating the casino\u2019s operations, from allowing public inspection of the information they collected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), whose request to see the financial statements of casino licensee…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305598","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}