“IT’S ridiculous,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said in an interview on Tuesday regarding the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations Committee’s investigation into his public expenditures.
“I’ve said this in the beginning: you have questions, come talk to me. Let’s have this discussion and address the concerns. We may not see eye to eye…. You may not like the authority I have. You may not like what I purchased, but…is it illegal?” the governor asked.
He answered his own question and said “no,” noting that if the lawmakers disagreed with his purchases and believed that he had done anything wrong, then why did they provide him $100,000 in discretionary funds in the budget law?
By law, the governor and lt. governor are each allowed a discretionary account for official representation expenses.
As per CNMI Finance regulations, official representation expenditures are expenditures authorized by an appropriation act to be incurred by the authorized government official for entertaining off-island government guests, or for other expenses to promote goodwill or the public interest and which are permitted pursuant to the regulations.
For fiscal year 2022, the governor was allotted $100,000 in discretionary funds through the budget bill.
Earlier this week, the governor wrote a letter to the House JGO committee chair, Rep. Celina R. Babauta, requesting that the lawmakers direct their inquiries to him through a written document so he can provide them with a written response complete with lawful explanations for the expenditures in question.
Asked what motivated him to write this letter, he said it was “to stop all this nonsense.”
He said the committee should bring their issues and concerns to him and not impose hardship on “innocent government employees and their family members” by serving them with subpoenas to testify at a JGO hearing.
“[Instead of] dragging all these innocent, hardworking government employees, putting their families through this subpoena, and all [of] this other stuff, come to me. I’m the one that you want to ask,” he said.
The House JGO has not yet subpoenaed the governor.
In these hearings, the governor said, government employees are asked about matters that are not within their scope of work, but about their personal opinions.
But the governor said he respects the process, which is why he is willing to “sit down and talk about it.”
Asked whether he would appear before the House panel, Torres said that that will be addressed once he receives a notice from the committee.
But he anticipates that the NMI Democrats, who now run the House, will criticize him no matter what he does for the CNMI.
“But guess what? I’m here, and we’ve got more things to do,” the Republican governor said.
Regarding the expenditure of the federal American Rescue Plan Act funds provided to the CNMI, Torres noted that he was criticized for hiring more people even though that is what the funds are for.
“We were given $481 million in ARPA money to spend and when we spend it, the critics are not happy. What do you want? We’re building infrastructure. We’re building capacity. But they’re still not happy.”
Torres noted that the lawmakers have had all of the information about his expenditures even in the previous Legislature.
“Now they’re taking it to a whole new level… If there’s any wrongdoing, what is it? I have never excluded anybody in anything. I welcome anyone to come in and help, but come with a solution. I can sit here and criticize every little thing, but we’re not going to go anywhere.”
The governor said even [his] family has been “attacked” by his political opponents and critics.
He recalled having tough conversations with his children as to why he, unlike others, couldn’t stay home amid the pandemic, but must be out on the front lines with first responders.
“I wasn’t sleeping. I was telling the [community members] to stay home. My kids would cry, ‘Dad, why do you go out to the community when you tell us to stay home?’ ”
In May and June of last year, the governor said federal authorities projected that the CNMI would have 6,000 to 8,000 positive Covid-19 cases, and there would be close to 400 to 500 deaths “if we didn’t do anything.”
Through the hard work and dedication of federal and CNMI government and health officials, first responders, businesses and community members “we remain one of the safest places on earth.”
Torres said he was at the front lines during past disasters and he will remain at the front lines to help ensure recovery.
He added that he has never taken credit for anything. “All the credit goes to our federal partners, the first responders, health officials, medical experts and the community as a whole. Because this is what we are. We are one community. We will work with each other and if we only truly work with each other, we can accomplish so much more.”
Political bickering, he added, doesn’t benefit the community.
Ralph DLG Torres
