SENATOR Edith Deleon Guerrero said Imperial Pacific International should hire someone “from the outside” to be its chief executive officer.
In a statement, she said hiring “outside of the CNMI would ensure that the person will have the qualifications to fix the various problems that the casino is facing.”
She added that this person should not only guide IPI, but the CNMI government as well when it comes to the casino industry.
“The CNMI must cease looking for an instant solution to the CNMI’s financial situation,” she said, adding that this “bad habit” of looking for instant solutions is why the Commonwealth is now at risk.
IPI’s new CEO is former Sen. Ray N. Yumul.
Deleon Guerrero also mentioned Yumul’s letter last month to Senate President Jude U. Hofschneider and House Speaker Edmund Villagomez regarding IPI’s recovery plan.
Yumul is seeking legislative action to allow IPI to pay just under $6 million of the $15.5 million it was supposed to pay last August for the casino license fee.
He said allowing IPI to pay the $5.7 million now will help the government prevent the termination of 180 government employees on furlough.
The remainder of the 2020 license fee would then be paid in five equal annual installments beginning in 2023, despite the fact that casino operations will not be possible for this license period, Yumul said.
Deleon Guerrero said IPI and the CNMI government “had no real understanding of what will work from the get-go.”
“It went for the grandiose idea [that] was not financially or economically possible. The CNMI government allowed this to happen,” she said.
“Process is paramount, [a] process that is wide open to the public and is cemented in accountability. When disclosure is absent, there’s no public discussion,” she said.
Citing a Saipan Chamber of Commerce letter to the government, expressing its concerns about the casino industry, the senator said accountability and compliance with laws and regulations must be addressed.
She also noted that the U.S. Department of Labor has asked the appointment of a receiver for IPI to oversee the payment of some of its obligations.
According to Deleon Guerrero, the earnings of the Saipan casino industry have declined 53.8% over the past five years.
“Are they in [a] good financial position? The report… that I looked at says they have less than one year of cash,” she added.
“We need to protect first and foremost the interest of our CNMI and our people. We can no longer continue to bend over on concessions without any industry-recognized analyst report.”
Edith Deleon Guerrero
