By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

AS THE government of Guam continues to scramble for funds, the Office of the Public Auditor has unearthed a dormant bank account used by the Attorney General’s Office for child support payments.
The account, recommended for closure three years ago, remains open, and has grown to $214,442 as of June 2006 due to interest earned.
The account was opened in 1995 with only $156,761.
According to OPA, its previous audit recommended the closure of the dormant account and the transfer of funds to the general fund but this was not done.
The public auditor attributed this failure to the AGO’s lack of monitoring, its non-maintenance of the Absent Parent Automated System Information and software, and its passive approach to addressing the need for technically qualified personnel who understand the child support system and can analyze the information generated by the APASI.
Although the APASI has received federal certification, the public auditor said the AGO has not developed its reporting capabilities.
Thus, OPA said the high volume of cases, the absence of independent monitoring of data entries, the lack of monitoring collections and disbursements, and the lack of technically qualified personnel, create a potential for fraud within the AGO.