She noted that the “doom and gloom” report was commissioned by Gov. Benigno R. Fitial, who has sued the federal government to prevent the implementation of the federalization law in June 2009.
Doromal, a former Rota teacher, said the report reminded her of the Hay Group report commissioned in 1997 by Jack Abramoff, then the CNMI’s Washington lobbyist.
The findings of the Hay Group report, she said, were cited by Abramoff and then-Gov. Froilan C. Tenorio to prevent the implementation of the federal minimum wage in the CNMI.
“The CNMI government, Abramoff and his soldiers in the U.S. Congress promoted ‘the findings’ like it was an independent research study,” Doromal said in an e-mail.
She disclosed that the billing records showed that Abramoff, who is now serving a close to six-year jail term for fraud, conspiracy and tax fraud, consulted with the Hay Group officials many times before the report was issued.
In addition to paying $178,000 for the Hay Group report, CNMI taxpayers paid out tens of thousands of dollars to the lobbying firm that arranged the deal and proofed the report, she added.
This time, U.S. taxpayers got stuck with the bill for the new report Doromal said, adding that it was the Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs that paid the $125,000 for what was supposedly an independent economic study.
She said the recommendation of Malcolm D. McPhee & Associates and Dick Conway “are absolutely predictable.”
“Their recommendations align perfectly with the lawsuit and the propaganda of the Fitial federalization fighters, she added. “It’s no coincidence.”
She doubts if any economist can truly predict what economic impact federalization will have on the CNMI when the policies and regulations for immigration and labor have not even been formulated or revealed.
According to Doromal, who is now based in Florida, “they do not even know what the federal program will look like, but they are advocating for the [retention of a] dysfunctional local control of immigration.”
She added, “The CNMI economy has been on a serious downward slide for years — the demise of the garment industry and falling revenue are already realities, and federalization is not scheduled to take place until June 2009. If the CNMI is not already in a depression as some have claimed, then a depression could hit even before federalization goes into effect. Right now the economy of the world is depressed, and this may have a greater impact on tourism and the CNMI economy than federalization will.”
