OPA, OAG’s help sought on allowance issue

House minority leader Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), left, talks to Rep. Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan) on the floor amendments introduced in connection with the House Rules and Procedures in last Wednesday’s House session at the House Chamber on Capital Hill. (Jon Perez)

The minority bloc of the CNMI House of Representatives has sought the help of the Office of the Public Auditor and the Office of the Attorney General on the issue of allowances that can be drawn from their office allotments.

The letter was signed by House minority leader Rep. Edwin K. Propst (Ind-Saipan), Reps. Tina Sablan (Ind-Saipan) and Edmund S. Villagomez (Ind-Saipan), and first-term lawmakers Rep. Sheila Babauta (Ind-Saipan), Richard Lizama (Ind-Saipan), and Donald Manglona (Ind-Rota).

Four floor amendments were offered in Tuesday’s House session, but only Rep. Ivan A. Blanco’s (R-Saipan) was adopted on a 17-1 vote, while those proposed by Babauta, Lizama, and Villagomez were each defeated.

The floor amendments proposed by the three minority members caused a lengthy discussion. The proposals would require publicly available reports detailing expenditures made from the allowances (Villagomez’s), impose penalties for failure to timely file reports or report public purpose justifications (Babauta’s), and mandate that expenditures from the allowances shall only be for public purposes as defined by CNMI laws, rules, and regulations (Lizama’s).

Blanco’s amendment requires each House member to “maintain a record of all transactions and corresponding public purpose justifications” related to the allowances.

The minority bloc and almost all members of the majority supported Blanco’s amendment. Rep. Joseph Leepan T. Guerrero (R-Saipan) was the only member who voted no to Blanco’s floor amendment.

Guerrero said he would not get funding for his allowance from the money that he uses for his office operation and the public is more than welcome to see where he spends the allotment. “I am not taking any allowance. If the community or any member of the public wants to view my records, it is open.”

“Most of funding in operations that I use are for tents [used] for [funerals] provided in Precincts [1 to 5]. I’m rebuilding bus stops and these are public funds. You are welcome to come to my office, I will open the door. They can even request [Department of] Finance,” added an emotional Guerrero.

Sablan said the minority bloc is seeking guidance from Public Auditor Michael Pai and Attorney General Edward Manibusan on the allowance that the House is proposing to authorize.

“Our primary concern is ensuring transparency and accountability for those funds. The House adopted a floor amendment offered by Blanco with support from the minority, to require members who draw allowances to keep records related to all their transactions and corresponding public purpose justifications,” said Sablan.

“The proposed rules must sit on the legislative calendar for at least one more day before we can vote on final passage. During yesterday’s session, we notified the members of our request to the AG and OPA, and provided copies of the letter to the members and the House clerk as a House communication.”

The letter said the House is poised to adopt an amended rule that would let members to draw an allowance of at least $2,500 but would not exceed $5,000 every month. The allowance would cover food, lodging, and other expenses for community events and activities, and other expenses for attending to legislative business in any senatorial district and outside the CNMI.

The minority bloc, in the letter, said that OPA has evaluated the allowances given to members of the 13th Senate in 2003 “where under the Senate arrangement, the [Department of] Finance secretary issued lump sum payments for each senator to deposit to a personal bank account or to cash it outright.

“Reports detailing all transactions related to these subsistence allowances were not required. Although the House rules do not characterize the allowances as ‘subsistence,’ the arrangement under which these allowances would be issued is similar,” the letter said.

The minority bloc asked OPA and the OAG to provide the House leadership with their evaluations, guidance, and/or legal opinions on the proposed House rules on allowances.

They listed eight questions: 1. Whether the House has the authority to grant such allowances to its members, drawing from each member’s individual office allotment; 2. Whether the proposed allowance for defraying the costs of food, lodging, and other incidental expenses related to legislative business, satisfies public purpose requirements; 3. Whether the proposed allowance amount is reasonable; 4. Whether the [Finance] secretary has the authority to issue lump sum payments for allowances to individual members for deposits into personal bank accounts or to cash outright; 5. Whether the [OPA] has the authority to audit receipt, possession, and disbursement allowances, as well as the personal bank accounts into which allowances would be deposited; 6. Whether the Open Government Act would apply to records documenting transactions from these allowances; 7. Whether any minimum reporting or other accountability requirements would apply to the use of allowances; and 8. What measures, if any, the House might consider adopting to enhance transparency and accountability for these public funds.