From these meetings, Congressional Act No. 16-25 was born. This is an Act to further amend Public Law No. 10-72, which originally set up the corporation back in Dec. 1997.
This Act amends Sections 6, 7, 8, and 9 relating to the composition, organization, terms and vacancies of the board of directors of the corporation.
For Section 6, “Board of Directors – Composition,” the original public law, as amended by P.L. 10-103, set the Board at five members including the FSM secretary of transportation, communication and infrastructure, or his designee, and all the other members of the board were appointed by the president.
The new public law states that the board “shall be composed of five voting members and one ex officio non-voting member (the chief executive officer of the corporation).”
For the voting members, the national government will represented with one member and each state will have one member.
All appointments to the board shall be made by the president of the FSM with the advice and consent of Congress, and the appointment of any state representative to the board shall be upon the recommendation to the president by the governor of the pertinent state.
The changes to Section 7, “Board of Directors – Organizational meeting,” deleted a subsection that required the appointed board members to randomly select the length of their initial terms, with three members serving initial terms of one year, and two serving initial terms of two years. This subsection is not found in the new law.
In Section 8, “Board of Directors – Terms of office and Term limitations,” clarifies that terms of office “shall all be for a period of three years and shall be staggered so that not more than two of the five terms can expire in one year.”
In his transmittal letter to the FSM Congress, President Manny Mori said it is his hope that the changes in the national law will result in an efficient operation of the corporation and it can, in turn, translate into safe and more reliable air service for the nation. He signed this Act into Public Law 16-26.
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