INTERIOR’S ON-JOB POLITICS Legislators to US Congress: Probe Stayman, too

Former Insular Affairs Director Allen P. Stayman must be investigated for his possible involvement with Interior official David North’s on-the-job political campaign, local lawmakers said yesterday.

This move could also help shed light on the series of probe by Office of Insular Affairs –– through a private investigator hired and paid for by the federal government  which was directed against the Northern Marianas, according to Senate Floor Leader Pete P. Reyes.

He raised the possibility that Stayman might have aided North to get information about the island that would be used against some Republican leaders who are known to be sympathetic to CNMI.

“In my opinion, he’s helping out in getting these information for their smear campaign against the Commonwealth and Republican leaders,” Reyes told in an interview.

He prodded the U.S. House Resources Committee, which is investigating some Interior officials for possible violation of the Hatch Act, to summon Stayman so he could respond to questions which Reyes claimed have baffled CNMI officials for years.

“Why do you think he sent a private investigator to the CNMI at the expense of the federal government,” the senator asked. “He can explain to the committee what is his real motive behind that action.”

Reyes was referring to the report released by OIA, which has jurisdiction over the CNMI and other U.S. territories, early last year which was based on the findings by private investigator Tom Gray.

The report alleged rampant forced abortion among Chinese workers employed by the local garment industry as well as illegal transshipment of apparel products into the CNMI, charges denied by garment manufacturers and island officials.

Jeff Shorr, OIA field representative to the CNMI, declined to comment on the House investigation, saying only that “it’s worse than politics.”

Commonwealth leaders have welcomed efforts by the House committee to probe key Interior officials over alleged use of government time and resources to launch political campaign against GOP members of the Congress.

Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) has summoned Interior Secretary Bruce Babbit, OIA acting director Ferdinand Aranza and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in a subpoena issued early last month.

In a recent findings by the committee, Washington Times reported that Stayman knew North’s activities while working as public affairs officer for OIA as he was given a copy of the secret memo in 1997 asking DCCC for information on how to assist Democratic candidates.

These actions, if proven, violate the Hatch Act which forbids federal employees from engaging in political activities.

Rep. Oscar M. Babauta said although these efforts may have been tainted with a “political agenda,” he believed the reputation of the Commonwealth has also been damaged by their actions.

“OIA can be known as a critic of the Commonwealth to the extent of utilizing their offices to maneuver political issues and political attacks against the CNMI government,” he said in a separate interview.

The investigation, Babauta added, would help clear issues that have driven a wedge in the relationship between the CNMI and Washington, particularly OIA.

“I don’t think that they should use their positions to persuade and sway members of Congress who are helping the Commonwealth,” he explained. “In that sense, they are using the Commonwealth and its people as well as legitimate businessmen here to attack members of Congress.”

Rep. Karl T. Reyes likewise slammed such moves by Interior officials who are supposed to be helping the CNMI. “That’s the dirtiest tricks that anybody can ever pull… to gain personally by using the time and resources of the U.S. government to attack the CNMI,” he said.

“If that is the purpose and the aim of the Clinton Administration, it is an embarrassment to the United States,” Reyes added.

He also believed that Stayman might have a hand on this because he was running OIA at that time, saying “no wonder why he’s against the CNMI government from the very beginning.”

Stayman, who is now Washington’s head negotiator in the Compact agreement talks with the Freely Associated States of Micronesia, has drawn the ire of island officials because of his strong stance to strip CNMI authority over local immigration and minimum wage policies.