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Stanley tries to return leased Mazda vehicle
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Posted on Apr 19 2006
Because of the government-wide budget cuts, Rep. Stanley T. Torres has returned the leased vehicle assigned to his office.
But Triple J Motors has denied the early termination of the lease of the 2006 Mazda B4000 pickup truck. The car company quoted Finance Secretary Eloy Inos as saying that the government had sufficient funds to make payments under the lease contract.
“According to Secretary Inos, your belief that your office will not make future payment due to budget cuts is incorrect. Secretary Inos assured us that the funds needed to fulfill payments under the lease contract did not exist and payment would be made,” Triple J general sales manager Vicente C. Lizama told Torres in a letter.
Torres insisted he could no longer afford to lease the new vehicle.
He said his office funds were short by $10,000 in the third fiscal quarter.
Data provided by Torres showed that his year-to-date allotment amounted to $58,096. However, his total expenses and obligations have already reached $67,831.
He added that the Finance Department had returned payment requests for his cable and phone expenses incurred by his office.
Torres had wanted the Triple J lease contract terminated effective April 1, 2006, the beginning of the third fiscal quarter.
“My office has been severely diminished by the governor in terms of economic stability, due to a nearly 30 percent reduction in allotment funding in this second quarter, and which will continue in the third quarter and probably until the end of this fiscal year,” the lawmaker said in a letter to Triple J Motors.
Torres had filed a lawsuit against Gov. Benigno R. Fitial and the Executive Branch over the administration’s move to cut the Legislature’s budget beyond the 7.1- percent reduction in government revenue estimates.
The government-wide budget cut was made to cover the $24.4 million needed for the purchase of power production fuel through the end of FY2006.
