Government Briefs
Government Briefs
March 2005
| CNMI Attorney
General Pamela Brown's confirmation by the Senate early last year is being challenged
in the Superior Court by attorneys of a Saipan family that was supposed to receive
$3.4 million in a land exchange deal dating back to the early 1970s. Just before
the check was to have been released to the family, the Attorney General's office
challenged the amount, indicating that the family may have been already paid $3,682-what
the land was worth at the time. Guam Two much-watched,
though unrelated, Guam trials ended with acquittals during January. On Jan. 22,
a U.S. federal jury deliberated two hours before exonerating Gil Shinohara, a
high-ranking official in the administration of former Governor Carl Gutierrez,
of charges that he accepted bribes and conspired to defraud the Federal Emergency
Management Agency. The trial had been moved to San Francisco at the request of
Shinohara's attorney. The Pacific Daily News quoted jurors as saying they believed
Shinohara was guilty of "stuff," but they did not find the evidence strong enough
to warrant a conviction. On Jan. 3, Guam Attorney General Douglas Moylan was found
not guilty of misdemeanor charges related to domestic violence in his two marriages.
The Guam public followed the four-week Superior Court of Guam trial during which
often-embarrassing details about the marriages were revealed. Moylan suggested
the trial was politically motivated by Governor Felix Camacho. The
U.S. Navy has awarded a $26.6 million contract to a Louisiana company, Edison
Chouest Offshore, for the charter of an offshore petroleum discharge system to
be deployed "in the Guam/Saipan area." The system provides rapid "transfer of
fuel from offshore tankers to military fuel storage facilities ashore when conventional
fuel transfer facilities are unavailable." The system includes a support vessel
and a tender. Palau A delegation of elected and traditional
officials joined President Tommy Remengesau, Jr. in January for an oversight tour
of the Compact Road and new capital buildings in Melekeok. About 20 vehicles with
100 people drove the 53-mile footprint expected to be completed at the end of
2005. The delegation also visited the capital buildings that should be ready for
use in January 2006. Vanuatu The Vanuatu Public Service
Commission has terminated Abel Nako from the position of director general of the
Ministry of Education. Nako was first appointed as director general of Agriculture
in 1998, and was one of the longest serving director generals in the public service. American Samoa The Education Department's former director, Dr. Sili Kerisiano
Sataua, pled guilty Jan. 26 in the U.S. District Court in Honolulu to "one count
of conspiring to commit bribery and fraud concerning federal programs" in the
territory. Sentencing is set for Oct. 17, before U.S. District Judge David Alan
Ezra in Honolulu. Sataua "admitted to defrauding the U.S. Territory of American
Samoa, the United States Department of Education and other federal agencies of
at least $61,000," Justice officials said in a statement. He received $9,000 for
awarding education contracts to certain companies and stole food and goods from
the school lunch program, prosecutors said. Three related cases were prosecuted
earlier, including former chief procurement officer Tafua Fa'au Seumanutafa, former
school lunch program manager Toetu Solaita and former deputy director of the Human
and Social Service Department Patolo Mageo. All three pleaded guilty in plea bargain
deals with prosecutors. Samoa Samoa's new dialysis unit
will open on March 15, according to Health Minister Mulitalo Pupi Siafausa. The
unit is a partnership between the government of Samoa and the National Kidney
Foundation of Singapore. The new unit, the minister says, will save Samoa millions
of tala being spent at present on having renal failure patients treated overseas. Samoa's
Parliament has amended the Public Bodies (Performance and Accountability) Act
to allow junior officers to report directly to the Public Service Commission on
any perceived misbehavior by their superiors. Up to now, such reports had to go
first to the superior officers in the ministries concerned. The amendment comes
as several ministries are being investigated for non-compliance with the Act's
financial requirements. Samoa sent a delegation of seven women
to New York in January to present its country report on implementation of the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The
delegation was led by Dr Luagalau F. Eteuati Shon, secretary of the Ministry of
Women, Rural and Social Development. Samoa is the second Pacific Island nation
to report so far on implementation. Cook Islands The
latest half yearly economic update released by the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Management has warned that the number of public service personnel must be constrained.
The Cook Islands has at least 14,000 residents and last year the public coffers
paid a total of 1,849 civil servants, a slight increase over 2003. The wage bill
for all public servants in 2003-04 was NZ$33.2 million (US$23.7 million). The
two Asian Development Bank funded landfills in the Cook Islands opened to the
public in early 2005-nearly two years from the initial date of completion. The
user-pay facilities are the first for the Cook Islands-one is on Rarotonga and
another on Aitutaki. The engineered landfills were designed by New Zealand based
Meritec Limited and constructed by Vuksich & Borich's. ADB provided $3.9 million
for the landfills. Fiji Meridian Services Agency
has sent another 400 Fijian men to Kuwait to work in various industries there.
But the continuing export of labor to the Middle East has raised concern in some
quarters. Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation Simione Kaitani supports the
work of Meridian Services but says it is causing a drain from villages as young
people travel to the city in the hope of recruitment. Meanwhile a director of
JS Hill and Associates, John Hill, says recruitment will cause a shortage of workers
in the local building industry. Tonga Tonga's
Crown Prince Tupouto'a has blamed former Police Minister Clive Edwards for Tonga's
failed constitutional media curb. Prince Topouto'a claims Edwards launched a personal
vendetta against the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper. His claims followed a startling
interview with Edwards in Matangi Tonga, in which Edwards said he was forced to
resign after being accused by the Crown Prince of plotting a coup. Edwards is
now campaigning for Tonga's March 17 general election. Papua New Guinea A government minister has admitted the state scholarship
program, Tertiary Education Student Assistance Scheme (TESAS), is rigged. PNG
Higher Education Minister Brian Pulayasi has blamed nepotism among Office of Higher
Education (OHE) staff for the increasing number of academically brilliant secondary
school graduates missing out on the scholarship program for university study.
The PNG government allocated more than K26 million (US$9 million) to the TESAS
program this year. Pulayasi said he would push for corrupt OHE officers to be
kicked out. The National Executive Council has directed Public
Service Minister Sinai Brown to redo the selection process for a new attorney
general. Brown appointed State Solicitor Isikel Mesulam the acting attorney general
but outgoing attorney general Francis Damem refused to leave-leading to a clash
between the two lawyers. Damem said police investigations of Mesulam over an alleged
pornographic videotape made him an unfit person to act in the position. Cabinet
has instead directed that deputy Attorney General Fred Tomo oversee the office
while a new recruitment process is undertaken. Kiribati The
commissioning of TV Kiribati was held recently at the studio and tower site at
the center of South Tarawa, the capital. Permanent Secretary for Communication
Tebwee Ietaake told a gathering that the initial work on the TV station began
in 2003, when TV New Zealand was hired to carry out a feasibility study. "There
were three overseas companies interested to start TV in Kiribati," he says. TVNZ,
a firm from Taiwan and Australian Powercom all bid on the government station.
"Powercom won the tender because of its cheap $383,000 price, plus the fact that
it can extend the signals to neighboring Maiana and Abaiang islands," Ietaake
says. Contributors: Frank S. Rosario, Frank Whitman, Nancy Chism, Samantha Magick, Fili Sagapolutele, Afamasaga Toleafoa, Ulamila Kurai Marrie, Alex Rheeney and Batiri Bataua. |
