Briefs
Government
Palau
Palau’s Office of the Public Auditor reported in August that due to poor coordination between the country’s Departments of Labor and Immigration, nearly 1,000 foreign workers had overstayed their work permits. Both departments have vowed to improve their oversight and enforcement efforts, but manpower shortages are hampering their attempts to do so. By failing to enforce deadlines and to require compliance with Palau’s immigration and labor laws, the Republic has lost over $138,000 in labor and application fees.
—RS
Palau is poised to become the 56th member of the Asian Development Bank, a regional institution that works to facilitate and promote the economic growth and development of countries in Asia and the Pacific. Palau President Tommy E. Remengesau, Jr. delivered a proposed resolution to the Legislature to approve Palau’s accession to the bank. Remengesau touted the benefits of membership to Palau, noting that since it had joined organizations such as the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in 1998, the country had received far more in grants and aid than it had paid out in membership fees.
—RS
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Federated States of Micronesia
All 14 proposed amendments to the FSM Constitution were defeated in a referendum in which only about 15,000 voters — 25 percent of those registered — turned out to vote. Nine of the 14 received more than 50 percent support, but all required a 75 percent vote to pass. The highest vote-getter was the proposal to increase the number of justices on the supreme court to four, which tallied 67.7 percent. The second leading proposal was to establish national educational standards and funding to support them, which received tallied 65 percent. The next constitutional review will be in 10 years.
—GJ
U.S. and FSM negotiators say that after a formal round of talks in Honolulu on August 28, they’ve “substantially completed negotiations” on a new 20-year economic aid package that is expected to provide close to $1.9 billion to the FSM. The new agreement still must be formally signed by the two chief negotiators, Albert Short for the U.S. and Senator Peter Christian for the FSM, and then approved by the U.S. and FSM Congresses. The funds will be provided in six sectors: health, education, infrastructure, governance and capacity building, private sector development and the environment. The funding package is expected to include approximately $79 million annually in grant funding, and $16 million annually in trust fund support. In a joint communique, the U.S. and FSM negotiators said “final understandings remain to be reached on the precise level of U.S. grant funding and annual adjustment for inflation.” FSM will remain eligible for federal programs that are currently available.
—GJ
Marshall Islands
In the largest embezzlement case in the history of the Marshall Islands to go to court, the Attorney General’s office has charged Louiston Louis with stealing more than $641,000 from the College of the Marshall Islands. He has been charged with 98 counts of grand larceny and cheating. He has pleaded not guilty. The money was allegedly stolen by Louis from November 5, 1999 through May 3, 2002. College President Wayne Schmidt said he didn’t anticipate that this would cause problems for ongoing accreditation by the U.S. Western Association of Schools and Colleges because in the wake of the embezzlement revelations, CMI had shored up its accounting system and brought in a team of Deloitte and Touche auditors to bring the books up to date.
—GJ
During the past six years, Japan has provided more than $2.2 million in small grants to 29 projects in the Marshall Islands through its Grassroots Grants program. But with the Japan government reducing its overseas development assistance throughout the world by 10 percent, there is both less money available and stricter review of projects to insure that funding is being used to the maximum benefit, Japan Chargé Toru Hayashi said in a speech in August in Majuro. With Japan’s continuing economic woes, “public attitudes toward the Overseas Development Assistance budget have been getting more and more critical,” Hayashi said.
—GJ
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Raytheon has lost a multi-billion dollar contract for operating the Kwajalein missile range to a joint Bechtel-Lockheed company. An actual contract award is not expected to be officially announced by the U.S. Army for some weeks until contract terms are negotiated with the new company that is called Kwajalein Range Services. It is a joint venture involving big Defense Department contractors Bechtel and Lockheed Martin along with Alaska-based power firm Chugach Electric. Kwajalein is the center of testing for U.S. missile defense programs. A boomerang-shaped coral atoll, many of its islands are dotted with some of the world’s most sophisticated radar and other missile tracking technology being developed for missile defense programs. The current Kwajalein contract has averaged more than $200 million annually. The new contract is being negotiated for a period of 15 years. No contractor has won a rebid of its contract at the Kwajalein base.
—GJ
Vanuatu
Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, was tense again recently following a crisis in the police force. Leading members of the force were charged with mutiny following their seizure of a new police commissioner, the attorney-general and other high-ranking members of the police and government. The appointment of the new commissioner had been challenged by a number of police officers who claimed it was politically motivated. To add to the confusion, the Supreme Court agreed with the claim, declaring the appointment null and void on the grounds of incorrect procedure, but the government did not accept the decision. With an audience of passengers from a cruise ship, the Vanuatu Mobile Force (a paramilitary unit), acting on orders from Deputy PM Serge Vohor, surrounded police headquarters in Port Vila and attempted to arrest 27 officers including the acting police chief. The police refused to accompany them, but evidently agreed to appear in court later, only to break their word. At press time five of the 27 police officers had been charged with mutiny and the remainder face similar charges.
—ND
Samoa
The Lands and Titles Court of Appeal has ruled that the lower Lands and Titles Court erred when it supported a decision by the Sala‘ilua Village chiefs and orators to exile members of their village for holding Bible classes. The landmark ruling comes at time when more cases have surfaced in the country in the last two years, where residents have been exiled from their home villages for holding Bible classes not approved by village councils. The most recent incident of members banished from their village for holding Bible classes without the authority of the village council was in early June, where close to 40 people, mostly children, were told to leave. In a five-page ruling the Appeal Court said that under articles 11, 12 and 13 of the country’s Constitution, “chiefs and orators have no power or authority to stop or forbid the holding of Bible classes or any other forms of worship that are new, whether it is done on freehold land or on customary land.”
—FS
American Samoa
Smoking in public places remains legal in American Samoa after the Territorial Senate rejected for the second time in two months a measure to ban smoking at all government buildings and several public places including public transportation.
—FS
—Rebecca Stanfel, Giff Johnson, Norman Douglas, Fili Sagapolutele
