by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Sen. Ben Pangelinan believes BBMR Director John Rios is intentionally trying to misinform the public. It was last week when Pangelinan wrote Rios notifying him that by law he was required to submit a certification letter to the Legislature as well as the Office of Finance and Budget prior to releasing merit bonuses. In December, Adelup paid out $4.5M in merit bonuses to close to 1-thousand govguam employees who have been waiting for 21 years to get their checks. Rios responded that the law was not applicable in this instance because the merit bonuses were prior year liabilities and were not charged to current year appropriations. Senator Pangelinan continues to defend that the law is applicable and a certification letter is required. In a follow up letter to Rios he wrote "Any further attempt to intentionally misinform, mislead, or deceive the Committee and the taxpayers of Guam who pay our salaries will not be tolerated". Pangelinan added that he plans to send a request to the Governor to relieve Rios of his duties at BBMR.