by Ken Quintanilla

Guam - Hiring practices at the Port Authority of Guam are under scrutiny by the Legislative Transportation Committee, which has an oversight hearing scheduled for this evening. Lawmakers intend to get to the bottom of the agency's alleged questionable hiring and nepotism.

Senator Tom Ada's committee will be holding the oversight hearing after concerns regarding Port security and personnel protocol arose earlier this month. And after several allegations were made against an agency employee, its deputy general manager hopes to clear the record straight.

Port deputy general manager Anisia Terlaje hopes to set the record straight tonight that the Port followed all the procedures relative to the re-hiring of her nephew Patrick Sablan, a cargo checker. "I have nothing to hide regarding the hiring of my nephew," she said, "he went through the appropriate channels and actually applied by himself and he was directed to provide documents, which he did."

Earlier this month, Sablan was hired at the Port but did not hold a Transportation Worker Identification Credential card, a requirement of the position. She says Sablan went through the interview process and upon his selection went through a screening process inclusive of a drug test, which he passed. She signed off on his employment as the acting manager at the time.

A cargo checker is required to have a TWIC card, however, it occurs after the employee gets on board and is not part of the initial application. She says only workers who required unsecured access to secured areas of the maritime facilities required to have a TWIC. "You know, getting a TWIC card is not within our jurisdiction - it is a TSA requirement and I'll be mentioning a little about that," she speculated.

she adds reports that Sablan's TWIC card was cancelled upon his previous resignation are "erroneous" considering that such credentials weren't required at the Port until late 2008. And relative to allegations on nepotism, as she stated earlier this month, the hiring of her nephew doesn't fall in line in the Port's rules and regulations.

But KUAM News has recently learned that the Port has recently hired an equipment operator who happens to be the brother of both an operations manager and a transportation superintendent, which would fall within the nepotism section of the Port's policies. Although she would defer to have the issue, if any, to the Port's general manager and Human Resources Division, Terlaje doesn't hold grudges or have any personal objection to it but does believe she was unfairly targeted.

She said, "As far as the hiring decision, I leave it up to our GM. But I just thought it was very unfair, mainly whoever provided the report."

According to Senator Ada's office, they have received inquiries about hiring at the Port relative to nepotism and security clearances. They did confirm that the equipment operator was hired, but through a separate panel selected amongst a number of applicants and wouldn't report directly to either of his brothers.

Port GM Mary Torres was unavailable for comment but preferred to address any questions after the oversight, which starts at 6:30 tonight at the Guam Legislature's Public Hearing Room in Hagatna.