By Zaldy Dandan
Variety Editor

On ‘federal takeover’

DAVID Cohen, the Interior official with responsibility for the insular areas, is here for a lengthy visit to meet with local officials and various groups and to glean from these meetings the state of the commonwealth and how federalizing the minimum wage and immigration will impact the local community.
Cohen will find out that there are many, sometimes divergent, points of view regarding “federal takeover.” There are those who are ideologically opposed to minimum wage increases, period. There is also industry-specific opposition to rises in the wage rate. Local businesses, for their part, have legitimate concerns about the impact of wage increases especially in these very tough economic times. Then there is everyone else who believes that wage increases will benefit the community in the long run.
In the short run, however, it could be a catastrophe. No one knows where the bottom will be, and this is what is, and should be, particularly worrisome for all concerned.
On the subject of immigration, the local people are unequivocal — they don’t want federalization when their cultural, economic and political control are at stake. Passions will run high.
With or without federalized immigration, the CNMI will continue to need nonresident workers like other jurisdictions elsewhere. What the commonwealth doesn’t need, however, is the continued out-migration of its citizens because things remain the same despite the clear clamor for changes.

A case in point

WHENEVER the government adopts ill-advised policies, it throws a monkey wrench into the best laid plans and ensures that things will not get better in the CNMI for many more years to come.
Consider, for example, public education. Considering the persistent lack of a qualified workforce, it is clear that education policies have not served the public well. But this fact has yet to inspire the elected members of the Board of Education to chart a new course that puts only the most highly qualified and experienced leaders in charge of what is probably the most important entity in the community — PSS.
As long as student performance lags, and proficiencies in math and reading scores hover below the mean, the community will not be able to provide the professional and technical resources that it needs to grow and thrive.
School administrators and teachers continue to struggle with see-sawing policies and lack of funding which is, in large part, the direct result of poor management decisions and bad priorities. Funds should go directly to the schools and into the classroom as compensation for administrators and highly qualified teachers, for books, supplies, and equipment. But poor administrative organization, a contentious management style, and a further entrenchment of sloppy practices will not produce the results that the general public is hoping for. When procurements are delayed, supplies, equipment and services are also delayed. It costs the students in the classroom, and the school system suffers, and it hurts the credibility of the procurement process.
Right now, a handful of top education officials share many positions that create potential conflicts of interest. The human resources officer is sometimes the acting associate commissioner for education because that slot hasn’t yet been filled. The financial officer’s slot hasn’t yet been filled so this important responsibility falls to others. But the commissioner did create and fill a new position — probably in contravention of his own personnel policies — the assistant to the associate commissioner for administrative services who is also the administrative services officer and acting procurement officer. A highly qualified procurement officer has not been hired. School principals, for their part, would probably wish for the same speed in filling some of the long vacant positions in schools.
There are, to be sure, many other reasons for the lack of progress in public education. But there is too much at stake and the problems at PSS cannot be solved too quickly for the people of the CNMI.

Paging CUC

WHAT is to be gained by limiting the number of qualified firms from competing for the power privatization contract by imposing an exorbitant fee simply to be put on a pre-pre-qualification list?
This requirement is a signpost read around the world, and it says, “Stay Away.”
CNMI leaders shouldn’t strain themselves too much pondering why the islands cannot attract solid international investors.