Senate panel to call in AG, public auditor on IG

Senate President Paul Manglona (Ind-Rota) said yesterday that the panel looking into a federal investigation report on a sole-source ARRA management contract plans to call in Attorney General Edward Buckingham and Public Auditor Michael Pai—but not necessarily at the same time.

“The panel want to know what action has been taken or what actions the AG and the public auditor recommend after receiving a copy of the [Interior’s Inspector General] report,” Manglona said.

He said members of the public and the media have been calling the Senate, asking what, if any, the Legislature plans to do with the IG report.

Press secretary Angel Demapan, in a separate interview, said yesterday that the Fitial administration cannot stop the Senate from doing its own investigation on the ARRA contract.

Demapan said the investigative report did not say that CNMI ethics and procurement regulations were violated, but only said “may have been violated” or collected evidence suggesting violations.

“While the administration recognizes that the report says certain ethics provisions may have been violated, at the same time the administration recognizes the report doesn’t exactly pinpoint a violation,” Demapan told reporters in an interview at his office.

Manglona said the idea of hiring an independent attorney to help the Senate Committee on Executive Appointments and Government Investigations come up with recommendations on what to do with the IG report has been tossed around, but nothing has been finalized yet.

Demapan said the administration appreciates concerns that ethics violations may have occurred, but the administration weighed the same concerns against the risk of losing millions of dollars in ARRA money that the CNMI needs.

“Ultimately, at the end of the day, executing the contract was to ensure that the CNMI did not lose out on opportunities that will not be available when the ARRA program expires. The governor had to make a decision on whether we would avail of millions of dollars of funding or risk losing it, having been administered by the CNMI Department of Commerce which at that point in time admitted that they were not ready to administer the program,” Demapan said.

The Fitial administration awarded a $392,404 sole-source contract to former Commerce secretary Michael Ada’s firm, Integrated Professional Services. The contract was awarded only a few days after Ada resigned. Ada was the CNMI’s ARRA czar when he was also Commerce chief.