THE House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations on Wednesday asked Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief of Police for Boating Safety Kelvin Aldan questions regarding Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ 85 boating trips using DPS vessels — some of which were funded by federal grants.
Aldan, who has been with DPS for 30 years and with Boating Safety since 2015, was shown documents that the committee received through a recent subpoena duces tecum issued to him. He signed most of the documents, including vessel usage reports.
He said the 40-foot Impact, the 30-foot Zodiac III, the 21-foot Zodiac I, a 21-foot jet boat, two jet skis and two 26-foot Tornado boats comprised the DPS Boating Safety fleet.
If the governor or first lady Diann Torres wanted to use a DPS boat for recreational activities, Aldan said he would get an order from DPS Commissioner Robert Guerrero.
Documents in the committee’s possession, according to its members, indicate that the governor received reimbursements for the fuel and other costs associated with the use of DPS boats for boating trips including fishing expeditions and other leisure activities in the open sea.
Aldan told the committee that he was aware that DPS Boating Safety officers and vessels were being used to take the governor on fishing trips all over the Marianas, but, he added, “we only shadowed him.”
He said he could no longer remember how many boating trips DPS Boating Safety personnel took to “shadow” the governor.
He remembered one boating trip when he and other Boating Safety personnel escorted the governor to Tinian. There were also trips to Managaha with the governor and the first lady using DPS vessels, but he could no longer remember how many times, Aldan said.
House JGO committee vice chairman Blas Jonathan Attao told Aldan that the vessel usage reports and log books showed 85 boating trips with the governor and his family from March 2017 to July 2021 using DPS search and rescue vessels, multiple Boating Safety personnel, thousands of gallons of fuel and other government boating resources.
Asked if the records are accurate, Aldan answered, “If it’s in the documents, yes sir.”
The committee also presented emails between DPS recreational boating safety program manager Vanessa Deleon Guerrero and Gary Jensen of the U.S. Coast Guard.
In an email, Deleon Guerrero asked Jensen if there were any restrictions in the use of Boating Safety vessels in transporting the governor, his family and guests from one island to another.
She also told the USGS official that the “fuel that will be used during these activities is paid by the CNMI local government.”
She said the governor had joined the expedition with the Marianas Visitors Authority in promoting the Northern Islands.
In his reply, Jensen told Deleon Guerrero that “generally speaking, protecting public officials would fall outside of the RBS (recreational boating safety) realm and would not be an allowable cost. However, in your specific example, a tourism promoter comes along and starts touting recreational boating as an incentive to visit your beautiful islands. At the same time that recreational boating safety is in the spotlight, your office just happens to simultaneously be providing protection to the governor. When even you have two or more missions being performed simultaneously, a decision must be made concerning how that time is distributed. Time distribution records must be verified by supervisors. If an officer records the time as RBS time and the supervisor signs off on it, then it will be billed to RBS grant. That procedure is acceptable and will withstand audit scrutiny.”
Propst asked Aldan if providing protection to the governor was included in the activities allowed by RBS grant.
Aldan answered that Jensen’s reply to Deleon Guerrero seems to suggest that it is allowable, since protecting the governor was happening at the same time the promotional trip was occurring.
Propst said the promotional trip to the Northern Islands did not appear to include boating safety education, which could be an allowable activity in the RBS grant.
House JGO Committee Chair Celina R. Babauta showed Aldan a fuel statement indicating that DPS owed Shell Marianas $93,081.71 in fuel for boats.
She also presented a copy of the governor’s request for reimbursement for fuel.
She said documents also showed that the governor received reimbursement for $919.10 for “fuel for DPS boat.”
She asked Aldan, “Do you think it is reasonable for DPS to be using taxpayers’ dollars to shadow the governor on boating trips for fishing, or going to Managaha?”
Aldan replied, “I don’t want to make an opinion on that — that is beyond my level.”
Asked if there was a time when the governor paid for fuel for DPS vessels out of his own pocket, Aldan said, “None that I could recall.”
Babauta concluded the hearing by saying that these “luxurious boating trips” of the governor and his family took place at the time when the people of the CNMI were in a lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
She said there will be no hearing next week as the committee still has to go through “thousands of pages of documents that have yet to be reviewed.”
Wednesday’s hearing adjourned at 4:14 p.m.
Department of Public Safety Assistant Chief of Police for Boating Safety Kelvin Aldan, left, appears before the House Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Operations on Wednesday.
