by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - The Guam Professional Engineers, Architects and Land Surveyors Board got slammed in an audit released by the Guam Office of Public Accountability. The OPA noting the PEALS Board didn't provide oversight or adequately monitor its finances, operations or the actions of its employees, relying instead on the integrity of its former chairperson and administrator, whose actions were questionable such as when they established a separate account only they had access to.

Auditor in charge Llewelyn Terlaje said, "When we reviewed the expenditures from the account, we found they were not made in accordance with procurement regulations, some questionable disbursements, like for example, like a check that was given to a so-called private organization but when we looked into whether this organization was registered with DRT there were no record of being registered as a non-profit or any other organization."

According to Guam PEALS Board chairperson Lisa Provido, this is the first time the OPA has conducted an audit into their finances, saying, "So in light of this audit, sure there were some deficiencies that were expected although the extent to those deficiencies and the nature of some of the actions done by the staff that was fairly revealing for the board."

The audit was prompted at the request of Senator Tom Ada, who has oversight over the PEALS Board, which establishes licensing standards for engineers, architects, and land surveyor professions on Guam.

REVIEW THE AUDIT