CEDA has been operating for over two decades and to my knowledge We the People have never been given a genuine accounting of CEDA, as WE have invested tens-of-millions in CEDA since its conception. Being an activist in the community I am often approached to inquire or write about something which is the case with CEDA, and for my critics, this can affect the court matter I have with CEDA but it does not matter as it is my right. I’ve had many conversations with citizens about CEDA and “what has CEDA done” and the most common response has been “CEDA only knows how to take people’s land.” Given that virtually nothing has been in the news about CEDA’s productivity with development projects my concerns and the concerns of other citizens is why I served CEDA with the Open Government Act request for their raw data on loans they made since 2003, which is the right of every citizen to know what CEDA or any Government Entity has been doing.
The Commonwealth Economic Development Authority, as its name tells us, should be “Developing our Economic Engine in collaboration with the Government’s efforts” while the Marianas Visitors Authority was meant to help the government in providing the actual fuel for our Economic Engine (tourists) figuratively. Mr. Chris Conception was so right about the importance of MVA that provides most of the “fuel” (tourists) for our engine. The problem is our Economic Engine has never really been running at full power and even missing, as some of our engine’s new cylinders are not even firing now like the Casino, the Cannabis Industry, the Hemp Industry that is still on the shelf and I could go on with more examples. I’m not putting our entire economy on CEDA but if CEDA was doing a genuine productive job at developing our economy it wouldn’t look so bad now.
CEDA even hired an Economist from what I understand. But WE the People have yet to hear about any form of “Economic Development Plan, Programs nor a strategy for Economic growth” from CEDA’s Economist. Being an Economist, and based on my on economic observations and the consensus public opinion that I got about CEDA, it truly appears that CEDA may have become more of a “property management company” from the land & properties they have repossessed than a leader in our Economic Development. When was the last “audit” of CEDA, as that kind of information is something every citizen and even the Governor needs to know.
I’m doing this FOR the People, as someone must try to hold CEDA accountable. I have seen it toooo often when something is just left alone to be squandered, as there is virtually NO accountability on CEDA. Personally, I think CEDA might need to be “dissolved.” The government can take the staff at CEDA and do a better job with a simple economic taskforce and our banks are more than capable of handling the loans that CEDA would do. In fact, I think the banks will do a better job at loaning money, given the horrific way they handled my loan, refusing to liquidate after I had a heart attack & cancer and letting interest pile up — scandalous. But if I’m wrong about CEDA, and I could be, as I may have missed something CEDA has done I will be the first to apologize. But I’m very confident that my request will inform the People on the actual productivity of CEDA. One People One Direction
AMBROSE M. BENNETT
Kagman III, Saipan
