Adelup requests forensic audit of Capitol District Fund
For immediate release, January 14, 2016
Call Amanda Blas at 475-9379 for more information
1.14.16 Requesting audit of the Capitol District Fund
(Hagatna, Guam) The Governor’s Office is calling for a forensic audit of the Legislature’s capital district fund after discovering an illegal expenditure of $330,965 from the fund.
Documents provided by the Guam 33rd Legislature to Troy Torres, the Governor’s senior advisor on strategic planning, show the Legislature used money from the Capitol District Fund for payroll, which is an operational expenditure.
21 GCA Chapter 79 Subsection 79602 states: “The Capitol District Fund shall be under exclusive purview and control of I Liheslatura and shall be dedicated and used solely for the repair, restoration, renovation, or refurbishment of the Guam Congress Building or other Capitol district properties …. and shall not be used for operations.”
In his letter to Speaker Won Pat and Vice Speaker B.J. Cruz, who oversees the Legislature’s committee on budget and appropriations, Torres notes that capitol district fund is supposed to pay for renovations to its building.
“There is a notation on the attachment of the (transmittal request order) in question that the legislature sent to me, indicating $310,233.69, the exact amount paid in one-time lump sum salaries in January of last year,” Torres writes in the letter to Cruz. “It is unclear whether this money was paid out to senator for their retroactive lump sum raises, or to staff for the biennial cash out of unused holiday hours. In either scenario, it is clear the Legislature used this money for payroll, an operational expenditure.”
