Click on above button to subscribe to the Journal and pay by credit card.

Marshall Islands Journal newspaper
Advertisement:

Enquiring about a room? Email:
mirrooms@ ntamar.net
FRIDAY, July 3, 2009
(Paid advertisement)
Subscribe to the Journal. One year costs just $52 by check or $57 by PayPal (See subscribe button at top)! Click here to see a sample of the Journal.
Teens brutally assault captain
$1m in Compact money not spent
By GIFF JOHNSON
A Koo’s Fishing Company captain was brutally assaulted by a gang of Marshallese teenagers Sunday night as he walked from a restaurant to his vessel at Uliga Dock.
The unprovoked attack calls into question safety for local and foreign fishing companies that employ dozens of Marshallese, pay fees to the Ports Authority and Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority, and patronize local stores and restaurants.
Captain Tian — who captains one of Koo’s purse seine fishing vessels — finished dinner at Uliga Restaurant about 9:30pm Sunday with two crewmembers. Tian then made the short 80-yard walk from the restaurant to Uliga Dock.He was within a few feet of the gate that is patrolled by Ports Authority security guards when he was
The Marshall Islands government did not spend nearly $1 million of Compact funds provided in fiscal year 2008, requiring it to be returned to the US government recently for reallocation to a future fiscal year.
Nearly half of the $978,587 unspent by September 30, 2008 has already been given back to the RMI, with the balance to be put into FY2010, which starts October 1 this year. This unused balance is the highest ever since the new Compact went 		into effect in 2004. It also includes $153,852 in unspent money from FY2006.
The US Embassy provided a breakdown of the unused Compact funds for FY2008:
• Education: $0
• Health: $252,862
• Kwajalein Environmental Impact: $7,554
• Public Sector Capacity Building: $128,891
• Ebeye Special Needs Education: $326,644
• Ebeye Special Needs Health: $108,784
• FY06 Unused Carryover: $153,852.
In FY 2004, the first year of the new Compact, unspent funding amounted to $198,770. It has increased every year since then, to $295,154 (FY2005), $573,436 (FY2006), $601,830 (FY2007) and $824,735 (FY2008) plus $153,852 (FY2006) for the FY2008 total of $978,587.
“All FY04-FY07 carryover funds have been re-granted to the RMI,” said US Embassy-based Interior Department grants official Alan Fowler.
“Out of the $978,587 in FY08 carryover funds, $435,428 has already been re-granted in FY2009 as per a RMI government request for use by KAJUR on Ebeye.
“These were the Ebeye Special Needs funds for Education and Health (listed above). These funds were drawn down by the RMI in March. The remaining $543,159 is included in the FY 2010 Compact allocations and will be available for use on October 1, 2009.”
This Week's
Inside Stories
Fish farm stops production
A major foreign investor has temporarily suspended operations in the RMI. GFB Fisheries RMI Inc., which has been operating a fish hatchery in Majuro for more than a year, said that uncertainty over logistics and cost issues relating to shipping live fish from Majuro to Asia and the United States have forced the company to put its commercial fisheries development on hold.
Diver rushed to Kwajalein
Another Majuro diver suffered the “bends” while diving last Saturday, forcing the Ministry of Health to pay for a medical referral to Kwajalein Hospital because Majuro Hospital’s hyperbaric chamber does not work. He is the second diver during June to seek treatment at Majuro Hospital for the bends.
Danz: No
'initial NCT payment'
The Nuclear Claims Tribunal confirmed what most people know: It is almost broke. In a June 24 order, Tribunal Chairman Gregory Danz ruled that there will be no “initial payments” — the first time this has happened since the Tribunal began issuing award payments in 1991. The Nuclear Claims Fund was down to $120,852.87 on May 27.
MICNGOs to highlight efforts
The Marshall Islands Council of Non-Government Organizations (MICNGOs) is planning a conference of NGOs in Majuro later this year to, in part, show government ministries and the private sector what MICNGO’s member organizations are achieving in RMI. “The purpose is also to get each organization to recognize what each other is doing,” said acting volunteer director Bonny Taggart at a general membership meeting at the Marshall Islands Resort last Thursday.
Nauru gets Digicel
Digicel has been awarded a license to provide cell phone service in Nauru, expanding its Pacific–wide GSM network. Nauru is the sixth Pacific country to sign up with Digicel, following Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.
Pictured: Waka Silk, 13, Junior Batlok, six, Zomile Joseph, 16, and David Joran, 10, play chess on one of the children’s computers at the Alele Library.
NEWS UPDATE: Friday, July 3, 2009
If MISSA had to pay all that it owes present and future retirees right now, it would be able to pay less than 30 cents on every dollar owed. But that news - from a recent “actuarial” report on the Marshall Islands Social Security Administration fund - is a big improvement compared to 2001. MISSA reported in its just-issued June newsletter that the latest actuarial report shows that MISSA's investments can only pay 28 percent of its total liabilities. “Liabilities” are the current and future retirement benefits MISSA owes to workers and retirees who contributed or continue to contribute to the MISSA system. MISSA's liability totaled $225.8 million on October 1, 2008 compared to its total assets of $63.2 million. Read more about it in the July 10 edition.

This is how many people have visited the Marshall Islands Journal Web site since September 21, 2007: