OAG resolves three OPA recommendations

The Office of the Attorney General has resolved a resolved a total of three outstanding recommendations from the Office of the Public Auditor and expects to resolve a fourth recommendation before the next OPA audit report is released.

In the first recommendation, OPA asked the OAG to investigate the number of telephone lines used by the former Department of Labor and Immigration. In particular, DOLI had 10 long distance calling accounts, but only four people who had access to make long distance calls. On Dec. 1, 2009, the OAG advised OPA at a meeting that the issue was moot since the federalization of immigration. In February 2012, the OAG sent OPA a written response and the matter was closed.

The second recommendation dealt with the misuse of public funds in the amount of $100,249 by a former Finance secretary. The former official was to repay $56,451.98 pursuant to a restitution order in the criminal case. OPA requested the OAG to determine if further legal action should be taken to recover the balance of the amount misused. The OAG determined that further legal action was not required as the restitution award, due to late fees and interest, had already increased to over $100,000, of which $76,000 will be paid to the Commonwealth. Further, it will be unlikely that the Commonwealth would collect the balance through further legal action as the former secretary does not have sufficient assets to satisfy another judgment. OPA closed the recommendation upon receipt of the AGO’s written description of its findings.

The third outstanding audit recommendation was officially resolved this month. In 2003, OPA published a report concluding that the subsistence allowance of the 13th Legislature may only be provided by legislation and the then current allowance was unreasonably high in relation to the senators’ likely travel expenses. The OAG found that this type of expense allowance is almost universal across the United States. Moreover, they are routinely upheld by state courts and generally given wide latitude. However the Department of Finance has the discretion to not pay a claim if the allowance claimed is unreasonable and appears to provide a personal benefit to the Legislature. Lastly, the OAG found that, although Finance regulations apply to the Legislature, they must be amended to apply more effectively to the current form of allowance. As such, OPA will redirect the recommendation to Finance.

Lastly, the OAG expects to close a fourth recommendation shortly. OPA redirected the recommendation to OAG on Dec. 12, 2000, and it concerned bribery and fraud in connection with a Tinian land survey contract. Specifically, a contractor bribed several public officials to approve a drastically overpriced contract for unnecessary work that was never performed. The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed an action against the contractor, and the parties stipulated to a plea agreement whereby he was sentenced to eight months in prison. The contractor also agreed to pay restitution, which was valued at $151.314.69 as of October 2009. OPA requested the OAG investigate the recovery of restitution award.

During its investigation, the OAG discovered that contractor had filed for bankruptcy in 2009, which would ordinarily make it more difficult to collect the outstanding restitution. However, the U.S. Attorney’s Office placed liens on the contractor’s real properties in 2002. Recently, the court also approved the United States’ request to foreclose upon the 10 real properties to satisfy the judgment. The bankruptcy trustee, U.S. Marshall’s Office, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are working to sell the properties and satisfy the judgments. The OAG feels that it will fulfill the requirements of OPA’s request by submitting a written report of the investigation and all supporting documents.

The OAG is pleased with the progress that has been made since renewing its focus on bringing the Office into compliance with OPA recommendations. The closure of the third recommendation would bring the Office’s number of outstanding recommendations down from 11 to eight. This reduces the OAG’s amount of outstanding recommendations by 27 percent. The two offices are working diligently to close all of the remaining open recommendations as quickly and efficiently as possible. [B][I](Office of the Governor)[/I][/B]