Tan Holdings is also the former employer of Gov. Benigno R. Fitial whose former lobbyist, Lynn A. Knight, is the project manager of MAI.
Knight, when still a Tan Holdings executive, was the publisher of the Saipan Tribune.
Edward Arriola Jr., who also manages the Tan Siu Lin Foundation, admitted that he works as MAI’s resident agent on Saipan.
But his work, he said, is limited only to the secretariat function that includes sending copies of newspapers to the MAI office and providing logistics to MAI’s operation on island.
Variety learned that Arriola joined the pre-proposal meeting of the Fitial administration with the vendors interested in the request for proposal that was put out for the desk audit.
Of the eight vendors that submitted proposals, it was MAI that was awarded the $360,000 contract.
In an interview yesterday, Arriola said he is not an employee of MAI, but just an “agent receiving a flat professional fee.”
He admitted attending the vendors meeting where he took notes that he submitted to the MAI office in Virginia.
Knight has been with MAI since Aug. 2009.
As of press time last night, Variety was still waiting for her statement.
Fitial and Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos are now reviewing and analyzing MAI’s desk audit report, which disclosed a lot of “inefficiencies” in DPS and DCCA.
