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Former CDA chief Ada wants lawsuit dismissed
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Posted on Aug 21 2008
The attorney for Maria Lourdes S. Ada on Wednesday filed a motion to dismiss the case that stems from her employment at the Commonwealth Development Authority.
Lawyer Mark B. Hanson filed the motion in the CNMI Superior Court, stating the Attorney General’s claims against his client “are deficient in both substance and form.”
The lawsuit brought against Ada in July said she violated regulations during her tenure as executive director of the Commonwealth Development Authority by having her sick leave converted into vacation time and then later exchanging that unused time for cash, a move that gained her over $59,000.
Ada served as CDA’s head from 1998 until her retirement in 2005, and is now a member of the Board of Education.
In the motion, Hanson said the CDA is self-administering and administrative expenses, including salaries and benefits to the board and CPA employees, are not related to funds of the Executive Branch or the Commonwealth government.
According to the motion, the “Attorney General is inappropriately meddling in the affairs of CDA,” and CNMI does not have standing to bring the suit.
“The present allegations by the Attorney General on behalf of the Commonwealth are nothing more than an attempt to embarrass and humiliate Ms. Ada for no reason other than Ms. Ada is one of many CDA employees that received benefits from CDA with which the Attorney General now disagrees,” Hanson wrote in the motion.
In the lawsuit, the AG’s office said Ada converted her sick leave to paid vacation time after a memorandum from then CDA chair Juan Tenorio told her and staff this was an accepted practice and that the time could later be “cashed out.”
A prior CDA policy statement, however, had already said that converting the time violated regulations but the complaint notes that Ada nevertheless continued doing it and also encouraged her staff to accept cash payments for sick leave. This activity later caught the eye of a public auditor and an inquiry followed.
“The allegations appear to be in substance that Ms. Ada wrongly followed the instructions of Chairman Juan S. Tenorio and encouraged the staff of CDA to follow the Chairman’s instructions,” the motion states.
