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Torres accuses Muña of lying on board meeting issue
Torres
Muna
Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. board chair Joaquin Torres accused CHCC chief executive officer Esther Muna yesterday of lying in her explanation why the board has not had any meetings since May last year.
Muna earlier told Saipan Tribune that she had communicated with board members, especially with Torres, with regards to the holding of board meetings.
Torres said that Muna’s attempt to clarify the issue is another lie.
“[She] needs to stop lying to herself and to the public,” he said. “And if she disputes that she is not lying, then she should produce proofs that she did in fact communicate with members of the board and I about board meetings.”
Muña said that Public Law 16-51 states “the CEO [has the power] to convene from time to time as the CEO determines necessary and appropriate meetings of the board.”
Torres said he knows that Muña has the authority to convene the board from time to time but she never balked at him calling for the meetings until her time to be evaluated came up.
“This was the procedure since Oct. 24, 2012. She had never questioned the authority of the board to call a meeting. She questioned the authority of the board for the first time when the agenda for the meeting included her annual evaluation,” he said.
Torres said he submitted a “Notice of Special Meeting” on Oct. 28, 2014, to Muna’s secretary, with copies to all board members, including Muña, for publication in the Saipan Tribune. Torres said that through emails, he noticed that the notice of special meeting could not be published due to CHCC’s legal counsel Nancy Gottfried stopping all publications, saying the CHCC CEO is the expenditure authority for notices to be published.
When contacted yesterday to comment on Torres’ claims, Muña said, “I don’t want to get into an immature battle.”
Their last meeting, according to board members, was back in May 2014.
