MAY 14, 2010
Obama panel
in our favor
An Obama Administration health report issued last week says the US government has not met its obligation for providing health care to radiation-exposed Marshall Islanders and should fund Nuclear Claims Tribunal awards to affected people and islands. The 200-page report includes significant mention of Marshall Islands nuclear testing-related issues, putting issues to the Obama Administration that the Marshall Islands government and nuclear-affected islands say remain unresolved.
Drought hurts outer islands
Northern islands in the RMI have experienced months with almost no rain, and weather officials say they should not expect rain for “the next few months.” “The likelihood exists that one or two months at Kwajalein and adjacent atolls could have less than three inches (of rain),” said a “drought information statement” issued by the US National Weather Service from Guam Thursday. Islands further to the north, such as Enewetak and Utrik, should expect “less than two inches” of rain the next two months, the report said.
WASC
praises college
The two top administrators of WASC visited colleges in Palau, Guam and the Federated States of Micronesia before arriving in Majuro at the end of last week for a visit to the College of the Marshall Islands. “We saved the best for last,” said Barbara Beno, President of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. Beno described the faculty and staff situation as night and day from several years ago. “Before, they didn’t know how far behind they were (from US college instructional and assessment norms),” she said. “Today, it’s all cutting edge stuff. They are doing a lot of research, finding out what works and implementing it.”
Yokwe Yuk helps schools
The Yokwe Yuk Women’s Club on Kwajalein has awarded schools in the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia nearly $72,000, with the majority going to schools in Kwajalein Atoll and the outer islands. This year’s grants for schools is lower than previous years, the result of the decreasing number of Americans living on Kwajalein where the volunteer women’s group generates the funds to support island schools, according to club Education and Assistance Committee co-chairperson Judy Kirchner. “The checks we are able to offer schools represent many hours of volunteer work by ladies here on Kwajalein. Our two sources of income are the Bargain Bazaar, our thrift store, and the Micronesian Handicrafts Store,” said Kirchner.
Where did the funding from the Kwajalein Yokwe Yuk Women’s Club for schools go? On the receiving end of $71,650 are schools in:
• Kwajalein Atoll ($29,000).
• Majuro ($18,000).
• Outer islands ($13,650).
• Federated States of Micronesia ($11,000).
'DOE, DOI have crept away from agreement
RONGELAP UPDATE
A former high-level Department of Energy official in the Clinton Administration told the Journal the US government’s push to return people to Rongelap Island in 2011 is “unjustified
and unfairly places the burden of protection on the Rongelap people.” Robert Alvarez (pictured), a Deputy Assistant Secretary for National
Security and Environmental Policy
and a Senior Policy Advisor to the US Secretary of Energy Hazel O’Leary from 1993 to 1999, said last week that without the broad and repeated application of potassium fertilizer on islands that Rongelap people will live on and use, individual doses will exceed the agreed-
to 100 millirem limit per year. “It is not clear if the radiological terms and conditions of the 1992 agreement
are being met,” Alvarez said
in response to questions
from the Journal.
Continued below
Posing in their prom gowns are MIHS senior Gatolo Domnick, sophomore Yosko Kaminaga, and senior Harlynna Rakin.
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'DOE, DOI have crept from agreement'
(Continued from story above) At issue are potential doses from eating local-only food in the southern islands.” Rongelap Atoll Local Government has built houses on Rongelap and Jabwan islands (which are connected) but potassium fertilizer has reportedly only been used on a 200-acre area of Rongelap Island. Alvarez said a panel of the National Academy of Sciences reviewed the settlement agreement in 1994 and concluded: “A crucial provision of the memorandum of understanding is that resettlement will occur only if no person returning to Rongelap and subsisting on a native-foods-only diet will receive a calculated annual whole-body radiation dose equivalent of more than 100-millirem above background.” “Until the US government can assure that steps to mitigate doses below 100-millirem are demonstrated, by applying potassium fertilizer, efforts to force the Rongelap people back to the home is unjustified and unfairly places the burden of protection on the Rongelap people,” said Alvarez. “It appears that DOE and Interior have quietly crept away from the 1992 agreement, without verifying that its terms and conditions to allow for safe habitability will be met.” Alvarez said the burden is on the US to assure Rongelap’s safety because of the 1992 government-to-government agreement concerning Rongelap that involves DOE and Interior. But he expressed concern about the US government commitment to Rongelap’s radiation protection. “While working in DOE between 1993-99, I had occasion to review the agency’s activities in RMI, and found the DOE staff to be resistant to complying with the terms of the 1992 agreement,” he said. “I was told it would involve needless expense and that the risks were not that great.” But, Alvarez said, the 100-millirem limit stipulated in the agreement “should have a safety margin, in which the doses fall beneath this limit to encompass uncertainties.” “Keep in mind that the limit set for the general public (exposure) in the US by the Environmental Protection Agency is 25-millirems. DOE is self-regulating and has a public exposure limit four times greater. However, DOE is required under the Superfund program to meet the 25-millirem limit as it proceeds with cleanup of (nuclear) weapons sites.”
GIFF JOHNSON
All current and future retirees enjoying — or hoping to enjoy — the benefits of Marshall Islands Social Security Administration benefit payments should pay attention. This year, for the first time in 10 years, MISSA is being forced to cash in $1.2 million of its investment money in order to meet the increasing amount of benefit payments to retirees. While benefits continue to grow, income from taxes has remained flat, making 2010 the first year since the late 1990s that MISSA will be forced to tap its investments to make benefit payments.
One MISSA official called this the start of a “death spiral” that could lead to the retirees’ fund being wiped. Cabinet was briefed on the problem by MISSA board and management officials on Monday, with a proposal being prepared for Cabinet consideration of establishing a task force to review the MISSA system to make recommendations for what can be done to preserve investments and benefit payments for future retirees. As of April 30, MISSA had $52.5 million invested overseas and nearly $5 million in deposits (TCDs) at Bank of Marshall Islands. For the current fiscal year, MISSA projects it will be $1.2 million short to pay benefits estimated at $14.8 million and cover administrative costs of just under $1 million, with an estimated $13.8 million in revenue from taxes. It has cash reserves of about $753,000. A projection looking at the next five years indicates
MISSA briefs Cabinet
payments in the immediate future with the number of jobs in RMI stagnant.
MISSA records show there were 10,123 employees paying taxes in 2005 and 10,146 in 2009: an increase of only 23 jobs in five years.
“The last five years collections have been flat,” Aho said. “But benefits are increasing about eight percent a year. That’s where the problem lies.” In 2005, MISSA paid out $10.7 million to retirees. In 2009, that amount increased to $13.5 million. While the number of workers paying tax into the system has remained static for years, beneficiaries continue to climb. In 2005, there were 3,240 people collecting MISSA benefits. As of April 30 this year, the number had ballooned to 3,853.
MISSA was continuing to push collections with delinquent private and government employers, she said. Aside from Kwajalein Atoll Local Government, Marshall Islands Resort and Air Marshall Islands — which owe large sums — MISSA is collecting nearly all there is to get, she said.
“There is only about another $200,000 a year that we are not getting (from non-paying businesses, mostly mom and pop stores),” Aho said. Cabinet will be requested to set up a commission to reform the retirement tax system, with the goal of getting recommendations back to Cabinet in a short time to address the problem.
MISSA will have to cash in the balance of its TCDs at BOMI by 2012, and from 2013 will begin withdrawing money from its overseas investments that will quickly deplete the fund in a few short years. MISSA estimates it will be forced to pull out $21.5 million in just three years from its overseas investments from 2013-2015 — a figure equal to 40 percent of the current investments. MISSA Administrator Saane Aho told the Journal the agency is satisfied with the results of its overseas fund manager, who has doubled the value of the fund from its $23.7 million in 2002. In previous years, MISSA had the extra money to invest about $3.9 million into its overseas stocks and bonds.
But those days are long gone as benefits continue to rise. MISSA tax collections have averaged under $12.9 million annually the past three years. Aho said she doesn’t see signs of increased tax
Oz tax deal
Australian Ambassador Susan Cox (pictured) and Acting Finance Minister Brenson Wase (pictured) Wednesday signed a tax information exchange agreement at the capital building. The RMI now has two such treaties — the other is with the US — and is working to sign similar ones with more than 10 other nations in an effort to get off the tax haven “gray list” of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “In 2007, the RMI conveyed its commitment and readiness to work with the OECD for transparency and exchange of information on tax matters,” said Wase. “Australia recognizes RMI’s commitment to meet the highest international standards,” Cox said.