DPS chief tells staff to give info to OSC

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Ramon C. Mafnas said he has instructed DPS personnel to begin gathering the information being asked by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel in connection with its investigation of DPS deputy commissioner Ambrosio Ogumoro.

OSC initiated the investigation after receiving a complaint that Ogumoro allegedly violated the Hatch Act when he asked DPS employees to attend and bring food for the Oct. 5, 2010, campaign rally for recently confirmed Superior Court associate judge Joseph N. Camacho, who was at the time a delegate candidate.

In a Tuesday email to the media, Mafnas said that, as commissioner, he never received any OSC request for information pertaining to Ogumoro.

He said it was only on Tuesday afternoon that he found a letter dated Feb. 4, 2011, from OSC addressed to former DPS Commissioner Santiago Tudela.

Mafnas said the letter was asking for federal grant information from 2010 and earlier. He said the letter was stamped received by DPS on Feb. 24, 2011, and the deadline to furnish the information was Feb. 21, 2011 (sic).

Mafnas said that Tudela issued written instructions to several DPS personnel to comply with the request. “I have no direct knowledge of what the former commissioner did after he issued the instructions,” he said.

Mafnas said the information that DPS personnel are now collating covers a wide range of documents on grants or loans received by DPS in 2010 and earlier.

“The amount of information requested is voluminous and significant. However, DPS will continue to gather all the information requested regardless of the time, resources and efforts required,” he said.

OSC has been unable to determine whether Ogumoro is covered by the Hatch Act.

In an Oct. 26, 2010 letter to human rights advocate Wendy Doromal, OSC attorney Mariama Liverpool said they requested information about DPS’ federal funding several times from, among others, former DPS commissioner Tudela and current DPS Commissioner Mafnas, but despite repeated requests, they have not received a response.

“Thus, we have decided to close this matter without further action,” Liverpool said.

In the footnote of her letter, however, Liverpool pointed out that news reports indicate that DPS received a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2009 to hire nine police officers.

Doromal had asked the OSC to look into Ogumoro’s and Attorney General Edward T. Buckingham’s purported violation of the Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of individuals employed by state, country, or municipal executive agencies in connection with programs financed by loans or grants by the U.S. or a federal agency.

The OSC had already determined that evidence suggests that Buckingham violated the Hatch Act when he invited staff from his office to attend an August 2010 campaign party for Camacho. Liverpool said they are now closing the case but had warned Buckingham that any further Hatch Act violations would result in direr consequences.