Hofschneider’s suspension extended indefinitely

Marianas Public Lands Authority commissioner Henry Hofschneider will not report back to work until the Attorney General’s Office concludes an investigation requested by MPLA chairwoman Ana Demapan-Castro.

Hofschneider had to miss the agency’s board meeting on Rota yesterday, after Demapan-Castro extended his suspension indefinitely. He had been suspended for 15 days beginning July 9 for alleged in subordination.

“I was supposed to report back to work on July 30, but the chair extended the suspension pending the outcome of the AGO’s investigation,” Hofschneider told the Saipan Tribune late Monday afternoon.

He refused to provide details on the subject of the AGO investigation, and said only that the next course of action regarding his suspension will depend on the result of the probe.

Demapan-Castro was on Rota and could not be contacted as of presstime yesterday. The Saipan Tribune also tried, but failed to reach Attorney General Pamela Brown.

In her July 9 suspension order against Hofschneider, Demapan-Castro said she would ask the AGO to further investigate the commissioner’s actions regarding a document requisition, which he had allegedly allowed the Commonwealth Development Authority to alter without the board’s approval and consent.

The document requisition is related to the transfer of MPLA funds at the Bank of Guam to pay for land compensation claims. Hofschneider allegedly allowed the CDA to alter the amount of funds being transferred from $216,322 to $134,695.91 without specific information as to whom the revised drawdown amount is intended to compensate.

In the schedule of requisition request prepared by Hofschneider and MPLA comptroller David Demapan, the amount of $216,322 was altered with a strikethrough and above it was typed $134,695.91. The documents showed that CDA executive director Maria Lourdes S. Ada altered the amount listed on the requisition.

“Any alteration without the board’s approval is grounds for disciplinary action,” Demapan-Castro said in the suspension order.

Demapan-Castro also cited as an act of insubordination, Hofschneider’s “abrupt departure” from an MPLA meeting last July 2 and his failure to return.

“While issues were being discussed, you got up from your chair, slammed the door, and left the room. I tried to speak to you, but you refused to listen,” she said in the memorandum.

Demapan-Castro based her authority on a July 30 memo where the MPLA board members granted her full authority to terminate for cause, if necessary, any employee of the MPLA who, in the discretion of the chairperson, is not efficiently performing his or her duties, or otherwise not complying with MPLA’s rules and regulations.

That memorandum was signed by Manny Villagomez, Pedro JL Igitol and Pedro M. Atalig.

Villagomez, however, insisted in a July 9 memo to Demapan-Castro that he does not agree with her decision, saying she does not have the authority to alone do what the full board of MPLA is required to do.

As for Hofschneider leaving the meeting, Villagomez said the meeting was not even an MPLA meeting but one with the land compensation working group. He said Hofschneider had asked his permission to be excused from the upcoming board meeting as he had a headache.

This was concurred in by board member, Nicolas Nekai, who said Hofschneider had also asked his permission to leave before the board meeting.