Presidential Chief of Staff Billy Kuartei who is also the chairman of the CAT coordinating committee said the incident has been reported to the police and at the same time he expressed disappointment about what happened.
LTJG Riley Smith, CAT’s 1233-24 Officer In Charge (OIC) said the vandalizing could have occurred between 11:15 a.m of Monday, July 14 and 1 p.m. of Tuesday.
Smith told reporters that the equipment was parked along the side of the main road in Ngchesar State when it was damaged.
He said they found the road grader’s back window shattered by a shot from a pellet gun and five of the electrical wires on the engine of the vibratory roller were cut.
He said that the Seabees were working on a project in the state to re-grade the main road and cap it with coral in order to provide a smooth driving surface.
“It was unfortunate that the equipment was damaged,” Smith said.
Smith however said that the two road equipment has been fixed and that they are ready to start work on the road again.
Smith said they started the road improvement six weeks ago but was stalled this week to make way for the repairs in the equipment.
He said that the road grader and the vibratory roller were parked a mile and a half on the main road.
Kuartei for his part said the incident was “disappointing” because the Seabees are here on the invitation of Palau.
He said that the Seabees has been providing assistance to the community and projects are usually requests made by states or entities needing help of the United States CAT.
He said in return the community is also encouraged to help in protecting the Seabees equipment.
