Senators and mayors could have provided five days each of emergency hotel shelter to 200 battered women with the $111,142.75 of your money some of them spent on their travel – on first and business class in several instances – supposedly representing Guam’s public interest.
In an analysis of public records requested from several agencies, including the Guam Legislature, the Mayors Council of Guam, Guam Visitors Bureau, Department of Administration, and others, Kandit has pieced together which senators and mayors have a penchant for travel using your money, without any self attestation whether Guam benefited anything from any of these trips. None of the senators or mayors filed any report describing their on-the-clock travels and how their trips and absence from office in any way achieved results.
Senators and the group’s top traveler
At the top of the travel ring is Senator Telo Taitague, who took seven trips, and spent $18,248.14 of your money in airfare and per diem. According to her filed boarding passes, Ms. Taitague several times flew business class, and at least once flew first class. None of the other public officials whose travel we scrutinized traveled at premium class rates.
The majority of the trips were funded using the Guam Legislature’s budget. Ms. Taitague, however, is a member of the legislative minority, which means she has a significantly shorter list of responsibilities than her colleagues in the democratic majority who have committee assignments. Nevertheless, the legislative rules committee approved her use of public funds to fly to San Diego to present a legislative resolution to the 2023 Chamorro Culture Festival at a total cost of $3,639.12.
According to the public records, the legislature funded her travel to Yap to attend a board meeting of the Association of Pacific Island Legislatures. That meeting cost taxpayers $2,506.09.
Her trip to Taiwan was paid for by a third party, but her per diem cost taxpayers $772.20.
The minority senator even spent $2,859.39 attending the 52nd Asian-Pacific Parliamentarians’ Union General Assembly in Japan together with Speaker Therese Terlaje, who spent $3,799.10 attending the same assembly. This union, according to its website, advances solutions to combat poverty IN ASIA.
Guam Visitors Bureau also used thousands in public funds to contribute to Ms. Taitague’s global travels. She attended a New Year’s appreciation reception for the GVB Japan office staff that cost you $3,132.09, then hopped along with many public officials to the launch of the Haneda-Guam flight service at a travel total of $2,872.34 for her alone.
She also spent $5,242.80 of your money to attend FestPAC in Hawaii this year. She was one of three senators who used public funds to pay for their participation at FestPAC.
You paid $4,583.56 for Senator Chris Barnett to attend the festival, and another $5,541.97 to send Ms. Terlaje there.
The total amount to send the three senators to FestPAC ($15,368.33) arguably could have paid for the participation of three or more Guam artists, or could have been used to purchase several works of art from local artists.
Ms. Terlaje was the second-largest travel spender in the legislature, with a total spend of $13,295.72 covering three trips. Other senators who traveled on the public dime include Amanda Shelton, Jesse Lujan, Roy Quinata, Tina Muna Barnes, and Will Parkinson.
Mayors and the group’s top spender
Inalahan Mayor Anthony Chargualaf, Jr. tops the list of senators and mayors as the top travel spender, costing you $20,551.21 for the five trips he took since January of 2023. In fact, he raked in the single-highest travel expense of the elected officials – $7,888.12 on one trip to San Diego for the 2023 Community Health Institute & Expo Conference.
The mayor attended a GVB New Year’s party just as Ms. Taitague did, but this one was in Korea, and cost the public $2,891.99. He also attended a GVB-paid sister signing ceremony in Taipei at a cost of $5,526.19, a site visit to the Commonwealth Transit Authority in Saipan that cost $1,327.39 in travel, and the launch of the Haneda-Guam route that cost $2,917.52.
Other mayors who traveled using public money include Johnny Quinata, Kevin Susuico, and Melissa Savares.
Mr. Susuico’s public travel includes a trip to the Philippines, where the Agat mayor purportedly attended the 17th Pilayang Festival in Buenavista, Guimares, and the 2024 Iloilo Dinagyang Festival. According to the city government of Buenavista and the provincial government of Guimares, the Pilayang event is a celebration of the town’s patron saint, the Santo Nino. Several entries regarding the Dinagyang event say it is a food and cultural expo meant to drive tourism TO Iloilo.
