MPLA board travels cost $105K

Board members of the Marianas Public Lands Authority made travel advances totaling more than $105,000 in the past year, receiving over $44,000 in per diem fees excluding board compensation. The unaudited monthly summaries of MPLA travel advances show most board members traveling off-island almost every month.

The totals do not include travel advances for January 2005, as the MPLA’s summary of travel advances did not reflect specific persons who made the fund request, including board members.

Travel advances for January 2005, which totaled $63,328 and covered some $22,711 in per diem fees, had the highest monthly total from January 2004 to January 2006. The MPLA spent nearly $750,000 in travel advances during this two-year period.

Travel advances from February 2005 to January 2006 show MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro with the highest amount of travel advances among the board members, totaling some $34,919. Demapan-Castro also netted the highest per diem fee total of $13,773.97.

For that period, Demapan-Castro made her highest single travel advance of $7,942.20 on July 11, 2005 for a trip from Saipan to Colorado from July 22 to July 30 that year. For this trip, the travel advance covered $1,800 in per diem fees, $5,682.20 in airfares, $135 in car rentals or ground transportation, and $325 in “other fees.”

Board member Nicolas Nekai followed Demapan-Castro for the highest amount of travel advances by board members. Nekai’s travel advances for the period totaled some $29,585, receiving a total per diem fee of $11,384.82.

Nekai’s most expensive single trip was when he went to Honolulu on Nov. 24 to “meet with various companies with wireless phones,” costing the MPLA some $7,435. The amount covered $1,389.38 in per diem fees and $6,046 in airfare cost for the four-day trip.

MPLA vice chair Manuel P. Villagomez had the third highest total in travel advances, costing the MPLA some $22,956. His total per diem fees for the period, however, slightly surpassed that of Nekai, as Villagomez received a total of $11,689.74, based on MPLA records.

Villagomez made his highest single travel advance for the period on March 17 for a trip to Hawaii from March 20 to March 30. The $6,098 travel advance covered per diem fees of $2,000 and airfare cost of some $4,098.

Felix Sasamoto appeared to be the less traveled member of the incumbent MPLA board. Travel advances of Sasamoto for the period totaled only $12,077, with the board member making no official off-island travel in March, June, July and December 2005. Sasamoto received a total per diem fee of $3,958.36 for the travels.

Sasamoto, however, made his highest single travel advance on Nov. 15 for trips to Honolulu and Washington D.C. from Nov. 24 to 28. Sasamoto made a travel advance of $7,435 to meet with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and then a certain Tom Crowe in DC with whom he would discuss the lawsuit filed by the MPLA against local telecommunications firm Micronesia Telecommunications Corp., now owned by Pacific Telecom, Inc.

In that trip, Sasamoto’s travel advance covered $1,389.38 in per diem fee and $6,046 in airfare cost. Sasamoto apparently proceeded to follow MPLA commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero and legal counsel Ramon Quichocho, each of whom made travel advances of $10,235 for the same flight itinerary, but the two officials went ahead, leaving Saipan on Nov. 17. Sasamoto, DeLeon Guerrero and Quichocho had Saipan arrival dates of Nov. 28.

Former board member Benita Manglona also made travel advances totaling some $6,263, more than half of which went to per diem fees. Manglona, whose term with the MPLA board expired during the last quarter of 2005, netted a total per diem fee of $3,561.73 from February to August. She made no travel advance in February, May and July 2005.

Manglona made seven travel advances in June 2005. She made five trips from Rota and two others from Guam to Saipan, receiving a total per diem fee of $1,583.01 for the trips.

Earlier, MPLA spokesman Ed Arriola Jr. said he would look into the summary of monthly travel advances by employees at the MPLA, but he quickly pointed out that there was no impropriety in making them. He said the travels could be explained and supported by documents.