Criminal charges mulled against ex-Rota officials

The CNMI Attorney General is exploring the possibility of filing charges against former officials of the Rota Mayor’s Office, after findings by an investigation by the Office of the Public Auditor revealed they used coercive actions against their employees.

In a letter to the OPA, Attorney General Herbert Soll said his office anticipates charging the individuals involved with multiple counts of theft, bribery, political coercion, conspiracy, solicitation and misconduct in public office.

Mr. Soll said he has instructed the AGO’s Investigative Unit to review certain witness statements that are critical to the most serious charges and update their version of events since the incidents occurred three years ago.

The final report of the OPA investigation released yesterday also disclosed previous administrators of the Rota Mayor’s Office misused government funds by issuing four payroll checks amounting $2,064 to an already resigned employee.

OPA’s investigation came after RMO employees, in 1996, complained that they were being subjected by some municipal officials to political pressures to support the reelection bid of then Rota Mayor Joseph S. Inos.

The employees claimed that they were then being forced to attend the mayor’s political functions if they want to continue their employment with the Rota Mayor’s Office.

In 1997, OPA said it was flooded with reports that RMO employees were dismissed mainly because they refused to support the reelection of the former Rota mayor, who told public auditor personnel that the employees served purely at his pleasure.

“Our review showed that the Rota Mayor’s Office violated the Commonwealth Code when it initiated punitive action against employees with limited term appointments who failed to support the mayor’s reelection bid,” the OPA report reads.

Moreover, after appointing 12 limited term employees in the month before the election, the RMO later attempted to use coercive action against nine of them either by comments on their refusal to support the mayor or by early termination, the OPA report said.

Public Auditor Leo L. LaMotte said the Commonwealth Code restricts officials from terminating employees only because they supported or did not support any particular election candidate for a public office.

At the same time. Mr. LaMotte revealed four payroll checks were issued by the RMO to a resigned employee. The money, amounting $2,064, were improperly used by that employee’s spouse and the Mayor’s chief administrative officer.

“As a result, the government lost the use of $2,064 in public funds which had not been earned by the employee when the four checks were wrongly endorsed and shared by individuals not entitled to that money,” he added.

OPA is recommending that the Department of Finance initiate actions to collect the $2,064 from those who wrongly endorsed the checks issued to a former RMO employee.

However, Finance Secretary Lucy Nielsen pointed out that the matter should be rightfully referred to the AGO since check forgery is a violation of CNMI law.

“The Attorney General should be the one to initiate legal action against those individuals and collect the $2,064 from them,” said Ms. Nielsen in a letter to the public auditor sent last Oct. 10, 2000.