In a news release from the Guam governor’s office, Adelup blasted Telo Taitague and other senators for supporting a failed override attempt on Bill No. 213. The legislation would have set deadlines on agencies to turn over certain documents and information to the Office of Public Accountability in order for audited financials to be done timely.
The following is the complete statement from the governor’s office:
The Office of the Governor issues the following statement regarding the Guam Legislature sustaining the Governor’s veto on Bill 213:
“We thank the senators who voted against the override of this politically driven bill, which is fundamentally flawed from both a logical policy perspective and even a common sense perspective. This measure, which was authored by Senator Telo Taitague, would’ve allowed hardworking employees to be fined if they missed arbitrarily decided deadlines. There is no rhyme or reason for how the deadlines could be set. If a public auditor decided a director needed to provide an impossible amount of information within an impossible deadline, that director could be subjected to unfair fines.
“The agencies most impacted by this bill weren’t even invited to the public hearing to provide testimony. Was this by design? The claim that all of the delays in the audit process result from agencies simply missing submission deadlines is not true. Delays often result from the actions of the auditor. This year’s financial audits have not even started because of issues the OPA encountered entering into the contract with the commercial auditing firm.
“Policymakers should not be passing legislation that allows anyone to set arbitrary and capricious deadlines upon anyone else, much less legislation that would subject hardworking people to fines for not following such arbitrary and capricious deadlines. This administration does not understand why Speaker Therese Terlaje and Senators Chris Barnett, Sabina Perez, Telo Taitague, Joanne Brown, Chris Duenas, Jesse Lujan, and Frank Blas chose to override the Governor’s veto even after her veto message explained clearly why this is a bad piece of legislation. The administration urges the author of the bill, Senator Taitague, to come up with meaningful legislation that is well thought out, reasonable, and shows common sense.”
