Mafnas alleges Gov. Torres told him to conduct corrupt multi-million dollar procurement
Gov. Ralph Torres’s chief of staff allegedly threatened – in writing – to fire a longtime civil service employee if that employee did not support Torres’s reelection bid.
Jose Mafnas – the former customs director at whom the threat allegedly was directed – was fired July 21 by Wil Castro’s subordinate, secretary of finance David Atalig, Jr.
In a lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of the CNMI, Mr. Mafnas, who is fighting his removal at the customs director, alleges Mr. Castro sent text messages through Mr. Mafnas’s niece warning him to be loyal to Gov. Torres, or else.
“Mr. Mafnas’s constitutional right to vote freely and as he sees fit has been under fire for months, with a recent written communication/threat coming from the incumbent governor’s Chief of Staff to Mr. Mafnas’s niece on May 22, 2022, that if Mr. Mafnas ‘is with the governor, in terms of the vision, then it is all good’ and that the Chief of Staff, apparently speaking for the governor, sees no ethical conflict in removing a person who is ‘unwilling or incapable of executing the executive direction,'” the lawsuit states.
“The incumbent governor’s Chief of Staff in a written communication to Mr. Mafnas’s niece also threatened that if ‘[Mr. Mafnas] fuhks (sic) with my Governor I’ll fire him myself,'” the lawsuit continued. When Mr. Mafnas directly engaged the incumbent governor’s Chief of Staff in a written communication to address these comments, the Chief of Staff replied: ‘Director, I’ve been a winner and a loser. But I’ve never lost a civil service battle.'”
The reference to a civil service ‘battle’ has become an allusion to the present situation, where Mr. Mafnas now is fighting in court what appears to be a wrongful termination based on the CNMI’s civil service laws.
“The Secretary of Finance’s Order is a demotion and an adverse action taken against Mr. Mafnas with no recognition of his right to due process and is a violation of Mr. Mafnas’s constitutional rights,” the lawsuit states. According to Mr. Mafnas, he was removed from his position without any notice of adverse action or opportunity to make his case or to appeal Mr. Atalig’s decision.
He further alleges Mr. Atalig illegally transferred him to a non-existent position at the Department of Commerce, which further stripped the longtime civil service employee of his merit protections.
Mr. Mafnas, in his complaint, also implied that Gov. Torres himself instructed him to conduct an illegal and corrupt multi-million dollar procurement.
“Further, the incumbent governor has verbally instructed Mr. Mafnas, on at least three different occasions, to purchase a multi-million-dollar X-Ray Machine for Customs, but to ‘run it through [the governor’s] brother,'” the lawsuit states. “This was another executive directive that Mr. Mafnas refused to participate in and instead Mr. Mafnas relayed his concerns to his then-supervisor, the Secretary of Finance, and the machine was not pursued under those terms.”
Mr. Mafnas is seeking his job back, and for the Commonwealth government to pay his legal fees associated with the lawsuit.
6 Comments
Ann
07/25/2022 at 4:23 PM
CNMI must get rid of these corrupted so-called leaders. They have it wrapped in their whole body and soul that they’re invincible and above God. Shame on them!
Frank Perez
07/25/2022 at 4:58 PM
Interesting fella this Will Castro, Havad fellow! No amount of education can substitute for
A seasoned political diplomat with wisdom from experience. One
day he will be bluntly asked to go to hell and he will be looking forward to the trIp.
Sikaduka
07/25/2022 at 5:50 PM
Leche, cochino mampos! Ai si poor kissass Willy and his governor, of course he doesn’t want to bite the hand that feeds him since he can never make it back here in Guam! Puro Kochinadas!
4ThePeopleCNMI
07/26/2022 at 10:01 AM
Not surprised. The gov is paying people to support him. We’ll get the last laugh when Ralph loses the election anyways the rest of us are woke. We aint that easy to fool 🤣 Bunch of fools for leaders we got on this damn island.
Fucked4life
07/27/2022 at 8:42 AM
I wonder who’s the niece that instigated all of this, hopefully she wasn’t someone who was sleeping with wil. You can’t mix pleasure with creating problems. Stick to one ☝️
Taotao CNMI
08/07/2022 at 10:33 PM
Will Castro is a snake in the grass and cannot be trusted, a reject politician from Guam….just ask Raymond Bo Quitugua sa he convinced Si Ramon bozo to go on that hunger strike ordeal a few months ago to prove that write-in candidate could win an election and that he (Will Castro) won as a write in candidate for Congress and won in Guam which by the way were false and convinced Si Ramon bozo…. now he’s all confused and now has decided to run for municipal council instead…so political and dirty but what could you expect when they all support this corrupt Governor. They will never win an election ever….PURU HA DINNAGI YAN KUCHINADAS….