THE House of Representatives yesterday gave the green light to the House Committee on Ways and Means to proceed with the full investigation of the sole source contract of Charles D. Jordan, Gov. Juan N. Babauta’s special assistant for capital improvement projects.
Seventeen House members present in yesterday’s special session voted in favor of Committee Chairman Stanley T. Torres’s request to subpoena Jordan’s statement of financial interest from the Office of the Public Auditor.
The committee is currently conducting investigation into the sole source contracts approved by the present and past administrations.
In a privilege speech, Torres vented his frustration over the administration’s seeming lack of economic agenda and poor administrative supervision.
“I am not satisfied with the way this administration is heading. The governor’s course is like the Titanic’s maiden voyage to America. When she left England, it was said that she was unsinkable. Our governor, too, during the election was unsinkable. But with the current trend, he is heading toward a political debacle,” he said.
Torres said he was “on the verge of a head-on collision” with the governor on two issues: the salary cap and the contractual obligations incurred by the executive branch.
Torres said that on June 24, he requested the Office of the Public Auditor to furnish his committee copies of Jordan’s statement of financial interest, but the agency declined to release it.
OPA recommended that the committee ask Jordan for a waiver in order to get the documents. But Jordan refused to give copies of his financial statement to the committee.
Torres said Jordan’s contract with Babauta creates a “new type” of employment status in the government.
“The proposed status that the governor wants us to accept is that Mr. Jordan would become both employee of the CNMI and a contractor,” he said.
Jordan is a special assistant to the governor and contractor for capital improvement projects.
Acting Gov. Diego T. Benavente, in an interview, said that while he respects the authority of the Legislature to conduct such investigation, he finds it “troubling that there is a need to subpoena the financial statements of individuals.”
“If Representative Torres is concerned about the contract and the governor’s authority under sole source, then he can challenge that authority. But no one has the right to look into private lives and businesses,” he said.
He said he and the governor “are trying to move this government forward.”
“We also do not accept the status quo. We promised change and so we need people who can get things done,” he said.
