OPA asked to revive audit on Guerrero

In an apparent sign of retaliation against Sen. Ramon S. Guerrero for his expose, the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Governmental Investigations is reportedly re-opening an earlier audit done on the Saipan senator when he was still the executive director of the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation.

Committee chair Sen. Joaquin G. Adriano yesterday asked the Office of Public Auditor to provide the EAGI a status report of the “alleged lump-sum payment of overtime, night differential, annual leave, compensatory leave, etc.” made to the former CUC chief.

Mr. Guerrero, who was elected as senator representing Saipan last November under the Reform Party, was ordered by OPA in 1995 to return $244,740.83 improperly paid to him by CUC relating to compensatory time payments and standby payments.

Likewise, he was asked to return $13,142.39 mistakenly paid as a retirement bonus, while CUC was instructed to reverse the approximately 4,500 hours improperly credited to Mr. Guerrero for retirement purposes.

CUC Executive Director Timothy P. Villagomez had referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Office for action. In 1998, the AGO disclosed that it was still investigating the case, but OPA has yet to hear on what has happened to the case since then, according to the recent annual report prepared by Public Auditor Leo L. LaMotte.

The EAGI move came just a day after Mr. Guerrero revealed what he said were questionable expenditures incurred by members of the Republican-controlled Senate in recent months and paid for with taxpayers’ dollars.

Mr. Guerrero could not be reached for comment on Mr. Adriano’s action. Efforts to contact the EAGI chairman also failed despite repeated calls to his Tinian office.

Target

The Tinian senator was a target of the disclosure made by Mr. Guerrero the other day, citing charges of more than $2,500 in airfare given to an individual as well as $4,000 down payment for a car.

Among other expenditures he has asked OPA to audit whether or not they were made for “public purposes” included those for purchases of flowers and fruits, cable subscription, phone bills, car leases, donations and restaurant bills.

“I want OPA to conduct the audit to consider areas that are not considered public purpose,” said Mr. Guerrero in an interview Monday. “I am not attacking anybody. I am just disappointed and dismayed at what I saw on how the expenditures were made.”

His request came amid differences between the Legislature and the Department of Finance over interpretation of public purpose set out in the Constitution and amended by two recently enacted laws.

Mr. Guerrero has thrown his support behind Finance Sec. Lucy DLG. Nielsen for not reimbursing expenditures by lawmakers that she considers not for public purpose, noting that elected officials must also adhere to the austerity measures implemented by the Tenorio administration.

Ms. Nielsen last month informed members of the Legislature of a new set of regulations intended to implement provisions of Public Laws 11-84 and 12-2 which will require them, among other things, to ask for certification of the expenditures from the presiding officers before they can be reimbursed.

House Speaker Benigno R. Fitial, however, has opposed the move since it would make him liable for all the expenditures of the 18 members of the lower house who, under its own rules, are granted the authority and the responsibility to handle their own legislative accounts.