There's a 50 percent cut and furlough action in order to reduce government personnel costs, in addition, a 25% cut on all government retirees pension and no further funds transferred to the public school system for the remainder of the fiscal year in the CNMI. Those are the recent directives implemented by Gov. Ralph Torres since the global pandemic has drowned the CNMI economy.

Before these actions, the administration had implemented a 72-hour austerity measure for all government employees after Super Typhoon Yutu struck in 2018 and burdened the CNMI financially.

One solution to this longstanding crisis, the community benefit fund that is under the Casino License Agreement, as explained by CNMI. Representative Tina Sablan, minority member explained the matter.

"Under the casino license agreement IPI was required to contribute $10 million to the community benefit fund in January 2018, another $10 million in June 2018 and then $20 million starting in October 2019, she said. "And every years after that we should be getting $20 million in contributions from the Community Benefit Fund according to the license."

The purpose of the fund is to benefit community programs or projects for education, scholarships, infrastructure, health care, employee retirement benefits. Further, the agreement also states the Community Fund contribution is under the control of IPI CNMI until the governor directs the selected project or programs for the fund distribution.

Representative Sablan said to date there should be some record of $40 million in contributions. However, this isn't the case, as Sablan and fellow members of the minority sent an open government act request to the office of the governor.

"According to the governor’s records they can only account for $1.2 million in distributions that went to four programs in 2018 and there are no records of any other distribution after that," she said.

VIEW THE COMMUNITY BENEFIT FUND DOCUMENTS

Sablan adds that the governor’s wife First Lady Dianne Torres issued an announcement of receiving funds into her foundation but there were no records to present.

"And when I reached out to the governor's counsel and asked is this really all that you have, and I specifically mentioned the first lady’s foundation and I said there was this press release," Sablan said. "And he said that what the governor’s office gave us was all the records that they had and that was all that he would say about that."

Representative Ed Propst said the governor should know some $30 million from the fund could be benefiting residents.

"Let’s tap into this huge resource, the community benefit fund because this could have been put into some kind of escrow something that was just waiting to be spent on the community, he said. "And the fact is that it’s not so for anybody to say well, 'we have to understand these are very difficult times even for IPI,' well this was something that was supposed to have been taken place well before any of this happened even before Yutu."

KUAM reached out to IPI CNMI for an update on the Community Benefit Fund at the start of 2020. IPI CNMI spokesperson Tao Xing told KUAM they work diligently with the government to ensure the conditions are met and that the flow of financial support from the Community Benefit Fund to community programs has never stopped.

“To date, there is still millions of dollars in the Fund," Xing said. "Imperial Pacific will continue to support and protect the community’s wellbeing by actively engaging and leading programs in the area of environment, destination enhancement, culture, education and social services.”

However, the Office of the CNMI Governor informs KUAM that “because of the tourism decline over the number of years, IPI CNMI has not been able to pay into the fund as they did in 2017.”

As of news time, IPI CNMI has not provided any further comments.
Additionally, Gov. Torres has not responded to KUAM’s request for an interview.

"The best way that to show that they are complying and honoring not just the spirit but the letter of that casino license agreement which is a contracted obligation," Sablan said. "And what we don’t need from the administration are excuses for why they can’t comply, what we need is enforcement and the person who has enforcement authority who is a party to that contract on behalf of the people of the commonwealth is the governor."

"Ultimately there’s four words that we all need to be in unison in saying, 'show me the money'," Propst said.

According to the minority members the Office of the Public Auditor was asked to conduct an audit of the community benefit fund for these records over a month ago, and IPI CNMI has not responded.