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DPW wants AG's opinion on Perlita Succang case
To the Civil Service Commission, she's no longer an employee of the Government of Guam, but she's still picking up a paycheck. And according to Perlita Succang's new boss, she's not going anywhere until he gets the word from the Attorney General's Office.
It's a story that's gone through many twists and turns. Succang was once employed by the Guam International Airport Authority as an engineer, and she took flight soon after a KUAM News report and landed a job at the Department of Public Works at a higher rank and higher grade of pay. While at the Airport Succang's alleged to have approved a $100,000+ change order to a contract awarded to her husband's company to construct guardrails.
After our report aired, she quit the Airport and was hired on board at DPW. The Airport had since asked the CSC to investigate, and last Tuesday the CSC signed a final judgment and order that Succang be terminated from DPW.
Still, DPW acting director Larry Perez isn't terminating Succang just yet, instead wanting a second opinion. "What we've done is wrote a letter to [the Attorney General] to opine for us. The reason being is because is that we're not sure whether we have jurisdiction to terminate Perlita," Perez explained. If you notice with the CSC, a lot of violations were overturned based on technicalities things like 60-day rules and here we might be faced with another technicality, and we're not sure if the consistency or in consistency may have us lose in a court of law. We just want to make sure our attorney at DPW will opine and whether we should proceed with the opinion or we should basically what we need to do the next steps."
According to Attorney General Douglas Moylan, he's aware of the CSC ruling and will be looking into the situation, telling KUAM News, "It is our intention to review it both civilly and criminally as to her involvement in this alleged award to her husband's company."
The Civil Service Commission found that Succang had violated ethics and procurement law, with the Commission saying that this particular case should send a clear message that messing with public funds is a serious offense that holds serious penalties. And while the AG will be providing a second opinion, he does recognize this case also brings to the light the need for revisions to the government's procurement laws.
Added Moylan, the island's first elected attorney general, "And our perspective one of our perspectives was to increase the penalties that are in the law, because right now the procurement law doesn't have any thing clear as to a violation and a punishment associated. Our office is in the process of talking with the Speaker in drafting potential legislation because this is of the white collar area, because if people are in a position of trust and how they effectuate their positions, but our Government Corruption Division will be taking a look at that particular case."
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