THE House of Representatives on Friday unanimously passed House Bill 22-104 or the CNMI Public Servant Anti-Corruption Act of 2022 and H.B. 22-83 or the Commonwealth-wide Whistleblower Protection Act.
All 15 members present voted yes for the passage of both bills, which now go to the Senate.
House Floor Leader Ralph Yumul, Reps. Joseph Leepan Guerrero, Roy Ada, Denita Yangetmai and Patrick San Nicolas were excused.
Authored by Rep. Vicente Camacho, H.B. 22-104 seeks to add new provisions to the law associated with public corruption, official misconduct, and other unlawful influence and related offenses committed by public officials.
The measure would make giving bribes to public servants punishable by imprisonment of not more than five years or less than one year, and would impose a fine of not less than $10,000 but not more than $50,000. It would also make receiving bribes punishable by not more than three years or less than one year imprisonment, and impose a fine of no less than $10,000 and not more than $50,000.
If the public servant is a building inspector, the prison sentence shall be not more than five years and not less than one year.
Authored by Rep. Leila Staffler, H.B. 22-83 provides protection to government employees reporting on prohibited personnel practices, and rewards individuals who report underpayments of taxes. The bill also clarifies the mechanism for the payment of rewards for disclosure leading to the recovery of public funds.
H.B. 22-83 proposes to reward $500 or up to 5% of the collected proceeds whichever is greater, to any person who makes a complaint or discloses information to the Office of the Public Auditor that leads to the recovery of public funds. The bill authorizes the Department of Finance to pay the reward.
Staffler thanked all her colleagues for the work put into the bill over the past year.
She noted the “unbelievable levels of gross mismanagement and waste of public funds and abuse of authority” that the House Judiciary and Governmental Operations, and Ways and Means committees have investigated.
She said the bill expands the scope of existing protection to beyond financial crimes to include unethical and illegal activity, such as coercion to participate in political activities, transferring to other job positions as a form of punishment and implementing non-disclosure agreements, and so much more.
Rep. Tina Sablan expressed her full support for the bill, which was reviewed “pretty extensively.”
She thanked Staffler for taking the lead in drafting the bill to strengthen protection for government employees against practices that “have been too common in our government.”
“Public service should be an honorable work and our public servants deserve the full protection of the law to be able carry out their duties and responsibilities honestly and ethically and also to report any wrongdoing in their offices freely and without fear,” Sablan said adding that her comment extends to Camacho’s H.B. 22-104.
