DOA's documents get returned to sender
Senators have been asking for documents on the Hay plan for weeks. But once they were finally delivered by the Department of Administration, they were rejected.
By KUAM NewsGuam - Senators have been asking for documents on the Hay plan for weeks. But once they were finally delivered by the Department of Administration, they were rejected.
At the request of lawmakers, the Department of Administration's Human Resources Division finally delivered documents on the governor's Hay plan proposal to the Guam Legislature. "And we attempted to deliver 20 boxes of documents yesterday, there were like four staff that went over there and the speaker's office refused delivery so we took them back," said director Benita Manglona.
The information on the estimated 30,000 pages were HR documents used by professionals to scientifically plan and implement the pay raises in the Hay plan. 20 employees from DOA, BBMR and the Governor's Office spent the past several days preparing for the delivery. "If they didn't want those documents they should have at least let us know," she said.
A release from the Governor's Office Monday stated the Speaker's Office refused the documents as they demanded DOA staff to separate the documents further by agency, inventory the documents and provide a manifest of the documents being transmitted. "But when they came yesterday, the individuals who delivered the boxes or attempted to deliver the boxes, could not identify at all if these are so we didn't know what were in the boxes, they were not labeled, they were not itemized the individuals from DOA didn't either," she said.
Speaker Judi Won Pat today says last month prior to the second public hearing with DOA on the Hay plan, she along with Vice Speaker BJ Cruz and Senator Ben Pangelinan had sent a joint letter requesting an agency-by agency breakdown of the costs, a detailed description where the funding would come from, a step and grade comparison between the 2010 and 2014 plans, and the methodology used to determine the executive pay plan. "They said they wanted an inventory of the documents, well there was a transmittal letter and it indicated what was being transmitted so I don't know what more did they want," she said.
Manglona meanwhile says putting together the documents wasn't an easy process and if they want to view them its sits at DOA waiting for them, saying, "We have a lot of work to do, I don't think we have the resources to keep going back and forth."
Won Pat meanwhile says going back and forth also isn't doing any justice in moving the Hay plan forward. "We're supposed to be working together and by the way the government is set up, it is our job to ask these questions, to get these detailed information to support the request of a dollar amount that they're asking for, and that makes sense," she said.
Governor Calvo already has made it clear he will veto Bill 268, won pat hopes otherwise but says lawmakers are already in discussion what the next options which include an override attempt or possible court action. "I know that it's available to the Legislature at least to ask for an injunction, to ask for an interpretation that is provided for in the Organic Act 1957 so it's an option, I'm not saying that's the route that we're going to be moving in 2004," she said.