Rep. Tina Sablan, left, and House Minority Leader Edwin Propst, back to the camera, listen to Rep. Janet Maratita during a break from a House session. Photo by Emmanuel T. Erediano
But Finance Secretary David DLG Atalig allowed members of the House minority bloc to review the documents that have already been sorted out over the last several days.
They were able to check many of the records, Rep. Tina Sablan said, but they, along with Finance staffers had to go through boxes after boxes of files.
The search, she said, is “painstaking.” Finance staffers were putting in a lot of hard work, she added, so “we appreciate that they’re making a diligent effort to comply with our request.”
Some of the documents that they are looking for include the records of the governor’s first-class travels, going back to 2014.
Aside from Sablan, the other minority bloc members who helped search for the files were Reps. Edmund Villagomez and Donald Manglona.
Because there are still a lot of files that need to be retrieved, the Finance secretary asked for another 15 days.
Sablan said they agreed to extend the deadline to Jan. 22.
In a separate interview, House Ways and Means Chairman Ivan Blanco said the deadline they imposed on Finance was supposed to be Jan. 10 and not Jan. 6 because the holidays and the days of administrative leave were not counted.
He earlier said that his committee was expecting a large volume of documents, and added, “we are going to do our best” to review them.
