Variety learned on Monday that Knight has been with MAI since Aug. 2009.
The former Saipan Tribune publisher and Tan Holdings executive also served as chairwoman of the CNMI Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Commission and the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Her new job was described as “developing a regional project in public-private partnerships encompassing the U.S. territories in the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean.”
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said the administration was not privy to Knight’s professional involvement with MAI.
He said it should be noted that when the contract for the desk audit was solicited, the government had a selection panel that “conducted a comprehensive and thorough analysis of the proposals submitted by interested businesses.”
Demapan said Knight had no involvement with the affairs of the CNMI government or MAI that “would pose any cause to believe that she had any attempt to influence the awarding of the desk audit review contract.”
The firm, Demapan said, was awarded the contract based solely on the recommendations of the selection panel.
He said Knight had no involvement in the affairs of the CNMI government during the entire period that MAI was conducting its desk audit review on the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs and the Department of Public Safety.
Whether she may have a professional affiliation with MAI in their other business ventures in the U.S. or other jurisdictions was information not known to the CNMI government, Demapan said.
The CNMI government secured $300,000 in technical assistant grant last year from the federal government to fund the desk audit.
