News Analysis Contradictory Statements Raise Doubts About Need For Guam's Development Moratorium
| Contradictory Statements Raise Doubts About Need For Guam's Development Moratorium |
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| News Analysis | |||||||||
| Written by Jeff Marchesseault, Guam News Factor Staff Writer | |||||||||
| Friday, 03 April 2009 00:07 | |||||||||
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Has The Local Government Needlessly Squandered A Whole Year Of Economic Improvement Opportunities For The Territory? [GUAM] - Inconsistent quotes quipped by two government officials just before the April 1st lifting of central Guam's development moratorium are raising red flags about the necessity of an order that halted construction in 14 villages and purportedly hurt Guam's reputation with foreign investors over the better part of a year. The discrepancy is also raising doubts about the urgency attached to the pending wastewater project that was supposed to fix the construction holdup in the first place.
In direct contradiction of the Chairman he was reporting to, this is what Guam Waterworks Authority General Manager Dr. Leonard Olive told the Consolidated Commission on Utilities during a meeting on Tuesday, March 10, according to a report filed by KUAM: "There's a lot of little thing(s) that we can tweak at pump stations, maintenance...we've had a lot of opportunity to redirect flows that go to Agana, some flows to the north...so we've got a lot of little things that'll buy us time in case we strike out on the bid. We probably have the capacity on staff to do a lot of that without relying too much on an outside contractor."
But subsequent statements made by CCU Chairman Simon Sanchez on K57 the following Thursday morning fly in the face of Dr. Olive's revelations.
Referring to central-island sewage problems, Sanchez remained unapologetic for the Commission's moratorium. "We have plenty of capacity there, but the lines are clogged up! I know people will say we shouldn't have done it. And reasonable people will disagree with our tactics...but we did what we had to do," Sanchez told K57 Breakfast Show host Ray Gibson as justification for the moratorium.
Sanchez’ comments raise two questions: (1) why it's taking CUC nearly 11 months since the moratorium announcement (May 20, 2008, ref. Pacific News Center) to call in infrastructure bids (due April 15, 2009); and (2) why the moratorium was ever implemented in the first place.
"The moratorium accelerated a project that we were going to wait five or seven years to do, because Guam's growth was going to be at a slower pace...now that the Marines (are coming)...the speculation that occurred forced us to move this project up and within eight months we have scoped the project, we have three or four bidders ready to bid, and we're confident enough that when those bids come in, we can do the deal."
Nevertheless, Nick Captain, President of Captain Real Estate Group, told Pacific Daily News he doubts that lifting the moratorium will reverse the damage done, because Guam has already earned a bad reputation among foreign investors -- and that current economic conditions only add insult to injury. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites          
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