One recent example, he added, was when the AG’s office did not file a timely brief with the Supreme Court.
“I did not blame anyone. I took the responsibility, have taken steps to fix the problem and I apologized to the court,” he said in an interview yesterday.
The public, Buckingham said, deserves an AG that will do his job, and “I intend to do my job to the best of my ability.”
Among his duties under the law, he added, is to review and approve contracts.
In the case of the $392,406 sole-source contract awarded by the governor to former Commerce Secretary Mike Ada, the AG said the director of the Division of Procurement and Supply and the secretary of the Department of Finance also signed it.
Buckingham reiterated that the contract was “absolutely legal.”
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s inspector general stated that Ada’s contract may have violated CNMI ethics rules and Procurement and Supply regulations and should be considered null and void.
“It is very easy to criticize after the fact,” Buckingham said, “but the truth is the Office of the Public Auditor also saw the contract first before I signed it.”
If the public auditor wanted to say something about the contract when Gov. Benigno R. Fitial showed it to OPA in September last year, “it would have been nice for them to say it before it came to me for review,” the AG said.
He said OPA said nothing about ethical issues.
Fitial, in a Sept. 23, 2010 letter, sought OPA’s concurrence for the contract.
Public Auditor Mike Pai responded on Oct. 7, 2010 saying OPA was not able to provide an opinion because it was Procurement and Supply that should make the initial decision on the matter.
Pai told the governor that OPA acts as an “appellate body” to review Procurement and Supply’s decisions.
The public auditor said he had not been provided with the “specific terms of the contract” to check its validity.
Buckingham said that he does not see himself as being made a “sacrificial lamb” after the Senate adopted resolutions blaming him for the fiasco.
“I hold the position of attorney general. This is a hard job. I take the job seriously and work as hard as possible as does everyone in our office. So I’m not a victim,” Buckingham said.
He added that he serves at the pleasure of the governor and will continue to do so as long as Fitial wants him to serve the commonwealth.
