Bautista: What’s the next committee?

That was the question raised by the administration of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres in reaction to the creation of a new committee in the House of Representatives that is meant to look at the executive expenditures of Gov. Ralph DLG Torres.

Bautista

Referencing previous committees the House had formed to look into the governor’s spending, press secretary Kevin Bautista asked, “What’s the next committee?”

“What’s interesting about this new development from the Legislature was the fact that this committee is not taking on the work of the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Judiciary and Government Operations Committee, and the Office of the Public Auditor,” said Bautista in an interview. “What’s also interesting is the fact that the composition of the committee seems also implicitly very targeted, if we’re going to be completely honest with you. At the end of the day, the administration [has] no luxury to play gotcha…politics.”

House Speaker Blas Jonathan Attao (R-Saipan) created the House Special Committee on Fiscal Review of Executive Expenditures on Monday. This ad hoc committee is on top of another committee, the Special Committee on Federal Expenditures, that is also reviewing the administration’s use of COVID-19 funds.

Bautista said that, in the midst of a pandemic and the economic shortfall the CNMI and the rest of the world are facing, Gov. Ralph DLG Torres does not have the same luxury as some in the Legislature “to play politics.”

“We’ve been in full compliance with the Open Government Act. We haven’t shied away from any of that. Any expenses that are related to their inquiries, they’ve been put in the same distribution to the members of Legislature for full disclosure, because we know public funds are something that needs to be properly accounted for, and the Department of Finance has done everything to show those documents and work with the Legislature,” he said.

Is it politics?
With general elections coming in about four months in November, the administration is also questioning the particular makeup of the committee.

“We’re not looking at it from the standpoint of party lines. We’re talking from the standpoint of the composition being questioned, given who was on the committee, and who was driving a narrative to target the administration,” Bautista said.

The new committee has a Republican chair and vice chair, two Republican members, two Democrat members, and two independents aligned with the Democratic Party. The Torres administration is Republican.

Attao earlier said in an interview that the formation of the committee is not a political move, and that the lawmakers are just “trying to do what’s right”

“I’ve always said that ever since those first documents came in and ever since Rep. Tina [Sablan] and Rep. [Edwin] Propst brought up these issues since last year, I told them that we’re going to do things the right way. We shouldn’t rush stuff like this. We should take our time, and make sure that we have all the proper information,” Attao had said. “I don’t see any reason to do stuff for political reasons, no matter what the issue is, because at the end of the day, if we do it that way, we’re going to make our people suffer. I don’t want to put our people in that situation.”

What’s being investigated?
The oversight began last year, with the House minority bloc’s formal submission of documents that included copies of government records related to travel, official representation, and reimbursement requests of the governor, in response to searches conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at Torres’ office and home at that time.

In an interview, Sablan said that the lawmakers are looking at potential abuse of funds related to reimbursements, as well as first-class travel, which according to Sablan, is explicitly prohibited in the law to be funded by the government.

“They really do require more investigation. On the minority’s side, we’ve had the benefit of being able to review these records over the course of several months and so we are glad that the speaker has appointed this bipartisan committee,” she said.

“The secretary of Finance has not fully complied with the Open Government Act and there are still pending records that we have not yet been able to attain, and now, as members of the special committees, we will be able to get those records and also calling people to testify,” Sablan added, noting that the minority bloc has no subpoena powers to call in witnesses and call for records that have not yet been submitted.

Rep. Ralph Yumul (R-Saipan), who chairs the new committee, said that its establishment is a first since he got into office in 2012. An investigation was done on former governor Benigno R. Fitial, but for misconduct in public office.

“The committee’s job is to investigate if there is waste. At the end of the day, we report to the body and that’s when the body decides what to do. But, it does give the opportunity for the administration to come in and justify each expenditure or receipts that they spent,” he said.

At a radio news briefing yesterday, Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios stressed that it is within the Legislature’s prerogative to create any committee and that they are authorized to do so.

“At the end of the day, when we start the conversation and the discussions on this particular issue that they’re going to look at, we do it in a civil manner and that the governor is not taken into the court of public opinion,” he added.