Tinian will not scale back its municipal operations. Its gaming commissioners are clinging to their $100,000 annual pay. No official on either island wants to cut personnel to improve public services. Their lawmakers, however, will continue to use their control over the Senate to extract more funds from the central government — that is, Saipan.
The governor’s spokesman, for his part, says there was no personal gain in the sole-source contract awarded to the former Commerce secretary.
Of course there was. Ada received or will receive close to $400,000 in federal funds to perform the same tasks he had to complete when he was still with Commerce and was getting way less than that amount. Even more astonishing is the press secretary’s explanation that “prior to the awarding of the contract to [Ada’s] IPS, Commerce admitted it was not ready to administer all the ARRA projects.” Of course Commerce couldn’t do the job. The one who was doing it had resigned to form IPS!
Meanwhile, nearly $60 million in ARRA funds remain unused. These funds should be applied to improving existing roads, installing street and pedestrian lights, funding hospital improvements and other programs for the public benefit — not for the hiring of political supporters.
Wake up already
THE newly appointed House member is willing to give her discretionary funds to the hospital. The Senate president is proposing to reduce the number of judges by one. These are great starts but they don’t go far enough. All departments, agencies, programs and offices that are superfluous should be identified and eliminated.
The Northern Islands mayor’s office, clearly, is a waste of taxpayers’ money. Over a 100 individuals who live on Saipan have their own mayor’s office to “oversee” a remote and mostly uninhabited area. This is an expensive political charade that the CNMI can no longer afford.
To justify its unjustifiable existence, NIMO, its Saipan political allies and apparently well-paid advisers and consultants are organizing a “development summit” and touting plans to, for example, transform the Northern Islands into exclusive resorts for extremely wealthy travelers. Sounds good. But these and similar proposed projects have been bandied about every time NIMO gets a new mayor. None have been implemented because they require millions and millions of dollars that the CNMI doesn’t have.
The “northern frontier” is just too far. Nearby Tinian can’t even maintain a ferry service. The CNMI government itself can’t convince any airline to fly to the islands with greater frequency. So what airline will provide regular service to the Northern Islands?
Dreams, to be sure, can be wonderful, providing inspiration, hope and an expansion of human reach. But elected officials indulging in them are just plain irresponsible when there are more pressing tasks like providing basic services to the community which should include affordable power, reliable healthcare and protection from criminals.
A reminder to NMI officials
THE federal government has hammered out a debt ceiling compromise that identifies future trillion-dollar budget cuts in defense, education, highways and other discretionary programs. For the CNMI and other U.S. jurisdictions that have come to rely so heavily on federal subsidies, the impact will be significant so it is prudent for the local leadership to use its resources wisely starting now.
