Northern Marianas College is ready to face lawmakers to answer questions about the legality of the La Fiesta shopping mall\u2019s turnover to the CNMI government.<\/p>\n
NMC Board of Regents chair Kimberlyn King-Hinds said the college will continue to meet with the Office of the Public Auditor and Sen. Henry San Nicolas, chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education and Welfare, to address concerns that the La Fiesta transfer might be illegal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just doing their job. We truly appreciate their concern,\u201d King-Hinds said of the lawmakers questioning the legality of the turnover. \u201cWe have nothing to hide. We\u2019re more than willing to sit down with them and give them all the information they need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Minority bloc senator Pete P. Reyes had said the decision of the Governor\u2019s Office to take over ownership of the La Fiesta complex in San Roque might be illegal as it would cause the government to incur a debt without the consent of the Legislature.<\/p>\n
Reyes, who pushed for a Senate oversight hearing on the La Fiesta acquisition, said that, by assuming the financial obligations over the mall from Northern Marianas College, the Executive Branch committed the government to paying the $4 million that remains unpaid from the mall purchase.<\/p>\n
The facility was acquired in August 2003 for $7.5 million using a $3.5 million federal grant money from the Governor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Reyes said the Senate legal counsel would issue an opinion on the legality of the La Fiesta ownership turnover.<\/p>\n
In an interview, King-Hinds said NMC\u2019s own legal counsel and lawyers from the Attorney General\u2019s Office looked into the memorandum of agreement establishing the turnover, before it was signed by the governor and the regents.<\/p>\n
The transfer of the La Fiesta properties has yet to be finalized, as the original sellers\u2014Hotel Nikko Saipan and Coco\u2019s Lagoon Development Corp.\u2014have yet to concur with the MOA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still negotiating,\u201d King-Hinds said.<\/p>\n
She added, however, that the college is targeting to have the turnover finalized before a three-member team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges visits on Oct. 27 and 28.<\/p>\n
The WASC officials will be coming over to validate NMC\u2019s progress report, which details steps taken by the college since last April to address the accrediting commission\u2019s concerns. Due on Oct. 15, the progress report would include the transfer of La Fiesta\u2019s ownership to the CNMI government.<\/p>\n
WASC had expressed concern about NMC\u2019s purchase of the La Fiesta complex when it placed the college\u2019s accreditation under warning status. The federal agency noted that the college lacks the resources to maintain two campuses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Marianas College is ready to face lawmakers to answer questions about the legality of the La Fiesta shopping mall\u2019s turnover to the CNMI government.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84601","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84601\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}