House committee’s subpoena out today for Travilla, Sapp, Villanueva

The House of Representatives committee that is investigating the previous administration’s controversial grant program will be issuing subpoenas today, Friday, to contractors Robert Travilla, Salina Sapp, and Shayne Villanueva to compel them to bring documents that the committee wants to see.

Rep. Edwin K. Propst (D-Saipan), who is vice chair of the Special Committee on Federal Assistance & Disaster-related Funding, said in yesterday’s meeting that the House’s sergeant-at-arms will be responsible for delivering the subpoenas.

“But that should go out by tomorrow as we’ve discussed before. So that’s the start for that information that we’ve been requesting,” he said.

The committee is looking into the Building Optimism, Opportunity, and Stability Together grant program that used $17 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds that were allegedly handed out to the previous administration’s cronies.

Propst said they are giving Travilla, Sap, and Villanueva 10 days to turn in the requested documents, then they will share it with the rest of the committee.

Committee chair Rep. Ralph N. Yumul (Ind-Saipan) also disclosed that the documents provided by the program’s then-administrator, Bank of Saipan, have redacted information that they need to determine.

Yumul advised committee members to be on the lookout for their agenda next week.

In an interview after the meeting, Yumul said the committee’s priority right now is to get the last of the witnesses that need to testify—Travilla and Villanueva—who were in charge of the BOOST program’s marketing.

Lastly, he said, they will summon former Finance secretary David Atalig and, possibly, former governor Ralph DLG Torres.

“For now, it’s the last of the puzzle, which is the marketing side,” Yumul said.

No subpoena has been issued to Torres yet, but Yumul said they are open to summoning the former governor because he did sign some of those awards and because, at the end of the day, he was charge of the program.

At the start of the meeting yesterday, Yumul said he asked for information from the Department of Finance, Zoning Board, Department of Commerce’s Business License, and the Bank of Saipan, and all documents have been received by the committee.

Yumul said Bank of Saipan did submit information, but a lot of the items were redacted. Yumul said he and Propst are going to visit Bank of Saipan possibly next week so they will know why some information were redacted.

“I honestly don’t believe that it should be redacted. It’s public information when they apply for the grant,” Yumul said.

He said the applications for the BOOST grants should include spending plans and they have not seen any of those, so that something he and Propst are going to look into.

Yumul said a lot of business plans were also not included in the package.

“When anyone applies for a grant, there has to be a spending plan as to exactly what each BOOST recipient is supposed to spend or use the funds for,” he said.

Yumul said BOS will allow them to see the unredacted documents, but they are not allowed to take a photo or obtain copies of the documents.

Propst said there are some businesses that obtained BOOST grants that recently closed and they’ve seen them selling items and moving off-island.

“We are hoping to get that addressed with regards to what happens to that property if that was part of the business plan… and they are selling it online or whatever. Can BOOST get paid back?” Propst asked.

This is something that they as a committee have to clarify with the Finance secretary, Propst said, and find out, if they did close down, as to what will be happening to the equipment.

“That is concerning to us. Once they leave the islands, we may never see them again,” Propst said.

By looking at the actual agreement that they signed, applicants have to report for a period of up to five years on what was spent and that includes all invoices, receipts, and any purchases that were made along the way.

“Question is: they bought something and they turn around and sell it. Is that fair?” Propst asked.

He said this is something that he and Yumul need to discuss with Finance Secretary Tracy B. Norita.

Rep. Blas Jonathan T. Attao (Ind-Saipan) said the information provided to the committee shouldn’t be redacted for the same reasons they didn’t redact information that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had picked up from the bank.

House legal counsel John Bradley said when the FBI went in BOS and seized the documents, they did it through a search warrant, which is essentially a court order issued by a judge.

At that point, Bradley said, the committee issued a letter pursuant to a statute which tells agencies that they shall cooperate with the Legislature.

“There are certain areas that might be confidential [enough] such as personal information that they redact. We don’t know what that information is yet,” he said.

Bradley said, however, there are still tools that the Legislature has available such as a subpoena, which is not a court order but a very strong method of taking documents.

If a subpoena is insufficient, a court order could be sought, he said.

Yumul added in the interview said they requested from the bank and other agencies certain documents for some businesses. From those documents, they saw who are the members or owners of a company that applied for the grant.

“But what we haven’t seen is the business plan,” Yumul said. “Those are not there—at least from the files that were given to us. We’re not sure why it was redacted.”