THE Bank of Saipan fiasco has exposed the seamy underside of how big business usually conducts business in the CNMI—under the table deals, transactions with the government that flout the Ethics Code and other statutes while stiff-necked government officials look the other way. Voters of the commonwealth, imagine for a moment that the gubernatorial candidate of the special interest groups won last November and this scandal happened on his watch.
Now congratulate yourselves again for making the right choice and thank the governor for revealing to the public the gutted condition of the bank before the unscrupulous could have further profited from it. The administration’s decisive and preemptive actions have secured the taxpayers and depositors’ money, and now, reform-minded lawmakers are drafting legislation to prevent similar meltdowns in the future. Considering what is at stake, however, we expect an extensive lobbying effort on behalf of the special interest groups. They would want a new but harmless regulatory law. They would plead and cajole, and they would claim that they, too, are only thinking about the best interest of the taxpayers. But of course they don’t and this is why Speaker Hofschneider should give Ways and Means Chairman Stanley T. Torres a free hand in drafting the new legislation. Torres is among the very, VERY few lawmakers credible enough to go after special interest groups. Mr. Speaker, allow him to do what should be done.
We expect Torres, in turn, to require ALL government agencies to deposit taxpayers’ money ONLY in federally insured banks. No ifs, no buts. The CNMI also needs a new and more effective law against conflicts of interest involving government officials—specifically those who are on agency boards and commissions while profiting from their extensive business dealings with the government, and sometimes even with the same agency. This new law, moreover, should bar government employees from getting contracts from the government. Last year, for example, an employee of the Office of the Governor had a PR contract with one of the gubernatorial candidates. Why was that allowed to happen? It is these blatant conflicts of interest that are turning off new and legitimate investors and entrepreneurs who know that they can never compete with the well-connected.
Enough is enough. The CNMI government says it is for free enterprise. Well then, let us see REAL free enterprise laws that will truly level the playing field and allow a businessman to succeed because of his entrepreneurial skills and not because he has the “right” surname or “friends” in high places. Let us see laws that protect taxpayers’ money and reward a bank or a financial institution because it adheres to federal (read: high) standards and not because a government official sits on its board.
Let us see an end to the incestuous relationship between business and government.
