{"id":345260,"date":"2021-06-01T06:05:36","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T20:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=345260"},"modified":"2021-06-01T06:05:36","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T20:05:36","slug":"ccc-in-serious-budget-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/ccc-in-serious-budget-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018CCC in serious budget crisis\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Commonwealth Casino Commission board chair Edward C. Deleon Guerrero presides over the CCC board\u2019s monthly meeting Thursday at the Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai. DeLeon Guerrero said CCC is in a serious budget crisis. (FERDIE DE LA TORRE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With Saipan\u2019s lone casino temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no other casino to oversee, the Commonwealth Casino Commission is facing a serious budget crisis, so much so that it is looking at possibly slashing its number of personnel.<\/p>\n

At CCC board\u2019s monthly meeting Thursday at the Springs Plaza in Gualo Rai, CCC board chair Edward C. DeLeon Guerrero said he and CCC executive director Andrew Yeom were previously discussing a possibility of implementing a reduction-in-force, which essentially means cutting some positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould we continue [with] this budget crisis, we have to tighten up the belt even more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the budget crisis will be discussed further at their executive session.<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero also raised a concern about their order that says the annual casino license fee and the casino regulatory fee be paid immediately. He said he does not know whether or not it\u2019s a necessity to have a legal definition of \u201cimmediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we all know that the annual license fee was due back in August 2020 and the regulatory fee was due on Oct. 1, 2020,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeLeon Guerrero said their final order reminded Imperial Pacific International (CNMI) LLC that those fees must be paid immediately.<\/p>\n

Last April 22, the CCC board ordered an indefinite suspension of IPI\u2019s gaming license, pay $6.6 million in total penalty in six months, and pay immediately $15.5 million and $3.1 million in annual casino exclusive license fee and annual casino regulatory fee, respectively, for violating many CCC orders.<\/p>\n

At the same Thursday meeting, Yeom reported to the board that the CCC has been losing employees.<\/p>\n

Yeom said the current head count of full-time employees is at 39, including their legal counsel, assistant attorney general Michael Ernest.<\/p>\n

He said the 39 will go down more after procurement officer Don Camacho left last May 15 and acting permit and licensing manager Benjamin Hocog submitted his resignation effective June 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is sad to see these wonderful and capable people leave as we can only hope for their success in their career maneuvers,\u201d Yeom said.<\/p>\n

For now, Yeom said, Arden Sablan is the interim procurement officer.<\/p>\n

He said he will soon announce someone from the Permit and Licensing Division to be the next acting manager of that office.<\/p>\n

He said he would be presenting and discussing personnel matters during the executive session that day.<\/p>\n

Yeom also disclosed that for the month of April 2021, CCC\u2019s total expense was $162,862. Of this total expense, he said, 72.93% was spent on personnel wages and benefits and 16.62% was spent on the board and other compensations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Saipan\u2019s lone casino temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and no other casino…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":345261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-345260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345260","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\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}