Brief Chat
The Office the Public Accountability combs the government of Guam bank accounts , examines regulations and scrutinizes documents . It finds aberrations : fraud , unethical practices , violations of the law . Its audit reports detail how the taxpayer money is misused and troves of taxes go uncollected . It provides recommendations .
The audit-wielding OPA is but one tool in the government ’ s accountability operation .
Besides pointing out questionable costs , violations and concerns , auditors also advise agencies on how to fix the issues . “ Unfortunately ,” Public Auditor Benjamin Cruz said , “ we don ’ t have the authority to mandate that they follow the recommendations .”
Cruz was elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2020 to the public auditor seat , after serving for many years as a lawmaker and a chief justice .
He is looking at ways to outfit the OPA with more teeth , more independence and more permanence .
Cruz cited the Northern Mariana Islands as a model for OPA ’ s desired structure . The CNMI Constitution guarantees an annual set budget for its public auditor . Such a setup , Cruz said , protects the independence of the CNMI public auditor .
In essence , a constitutional guarantee would mean there is no need for direct legislative or executive branch intervention of the CNMI public auditor budget .
Cruz is considering pushing for the same budget guarantee in the Organic Act of Guam . “ In some jurisdictions , the OPA is established by Constitution , so it can ’ t be struck by legislators ,” Cruz said .
On Guam , the OPA is at the mercy of the legislature . “ It could be very easily just , ‘ The Office of Public Accountability is hereby repealed ,’” the former senator said .
For now , the OPA is still an established department and auditors issue recommendations to improve government operations . There is , however , inconsistent effort to implement those recommendations .
“ Departments implement some of ( the recommendations ), but we still find some that haven ’ t been implemented . So , six months after the issuance , we ’ ll send a follow-up letter ,” Cruz said .
In other jurisdictions , public auditors have prosecutorial power . Guam ’ s OPA is not afforded such an option . “ We don ’ t have the authority to do anything about it , except point it out . All we can do is just publish it and hope that shame will do it .”
At the beginning of the Leon Guerrero-Tenorio administration , a staffer was tasked to review OPA ’ s audits and recommendations . The administration started following up on the recommendations , but when the staffer moved to a different agency , the effort came to
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Without the power to prosecute , OPA can only blow the whistle in hopes of shaming the delinquent into doing things right
By Jasmine Stole Weiss a halt , Cruz said . No one else was assigned to succeed that staffer .
If the OPA makes referrals to the Office of the Attorney General , it is up to the AG ’ s office to decide to pursue it , if at all . “ We ’ ve had instances in the past where we found a fairly egregious behavior . We reported it and sent it to the AG . Rather than prosecute criminally , they decided to work it out civilly so the person had to pay some money and do some restitution to straighten things out ,” Cruz said .
The OPA has also worked with the Guam Legislature to resolve issues their audits found through legislation . “ Sometimes they do . Sometimes they don ’ t ,” Cruz said .
A recent example of senators introducing a bill in line with the OPA recommendations is Bill 152-36 , which seeks to close some of the inactive special fund accounts the OPA identified years ago .
While the office has limitations , it also possesses valuable authority , particularly in procurement appeals . When taxpayer-funded government contracts are challenged , it ’ s the OPA that settles disputes .
As Cruz considers options to improve the OPA , the auditors continue their mission . In cases where he is connected to an issue or people being audited , Cruz is kept out of the auditing process to maintain objectivity .
“ I didn ’ t even know what the stats were . I saw it the day it went on the website ,” Cruz said . “ They didn ’ t even allow me to see it in its final draft before it was released .”
In 2020 , the OPA conducted 25 financial audits , up from the 23 in 2019 . They produced nine performance audits , which was the same amount as 2019 but one more than the eight performance audits done in 2018 . Output increased in the past three years , according to the OPA ’ s citizencentric report .
While output increased , the staff size decreased . In the past two years , 10 employees left the office . Cruz attributed the attrition partly to higher salaries in other agencies . OPA has since been able to hire six more auditors .
All things considered , Cruz is proud of OPA ’ s accomplishments . “ Pointing something out that could possibly bring us a lot of money , I like those audits ,” he said . “ For use tax , there ’ s this major problem that I ’ m hoping the administration addresses because we ’ re just losing so much tax . During the pandemic , it got even worse .”
OPA has more items on its laundry list such as following up on the tobacco tax enforcement , scanning the military contracts , and monitoring GovGuam agencies ’ compliance with procedure laws .
“ I ’ m really proud of the work the staff does , in getting opinions out and ( solving ) procurement appeals ,” Cruz said .