A copy of a contract showed that the CNMI government will pay One Economy Corp., $1,042,322 for the sustainable broadband adoption and mapping project.
To be carried out in seven phases, the project will get $1,216,116 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
The contract was signed on March 21, by Fitial, Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham and One Economy Corp. president Moustafa A. Mourad.
The project will “develop and maintain a comprehensive, interactive, and searchable island-wide inventory map of existing broadband service capability in the CNMI.”
Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said the deal is an active contract published on the ARRA website.
In a separate email, Fred Camacho, CNMI ARRA IT and communications manager, said the contract is public information.
He said their office has “a complete open door policy” regarding such contracts.
According to a press statement from Demapan, the CNMI ARRA Office started working with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration in 2009 regarding a grant application.
The first step was to send a waiver request to extend the grant application deadline.
The NTIA then informed the CNMI that an eligible entity had to be designated for the islands.
The federal agency also provided a list of eligible entities. The list included One-Economy Corp. which was said to be familiar with the region and its unique challenges.
The NTIA later told the CNMI that One-Economy could not avail of the $200,000 fee waiver.
As a result the CNMI Department of Commerce was designated as the eligible entity so that the commonwealth could avail of the waiver.
In a conference call on Aug. 14, 2010, the statement said the CNMI ARRA office told the NTIA that since CNMI Commerce became the eligible entity, the contract would have to go through bidding.
But this would not be equitable for One-Economy Corp. as it had developed the application and had a detailed budget information, the press statement said.
Due to unavailability of expertise within the CNMI and the region, he said it was decided to look into the possibility of a sole-source contact for One-Economy Corp.
The CNMI Attorney General’s Office and the Division of Procurement and Supply approved the sole-source contract.
The governor earlier approved Michael Ada’s $392,406 sole-source contract shortly after he resigned as Commerce secretary.
Ada is now the state lead for the ARRA grant program.
