‘MPLA following wrong procedure in land compensation disbursement’

Issues surrounding the suspension of Marianas Public Lands Authority commissioner Henry Hofschneider have led to the finding that MPLA has been following the wrong disbursement procedure for land compensation all along.

In an Aug. 9 opinion, bond counsel Roger Davis clarified that all disbursements from the MPLA should be issued directly to each landowner and not deposited to the MPLA checking account.

MPLA’s current practice is to have disbursements from the MPLA account deposited into MPLA’s checking account and then issued to landowners. MPLA has followed this process in the three requisition documents it has issued so far this year, including Requisition FY 04-03 which Hofschneider had allowed Commonwealth Development Authority executive director Maria Lourdes Ada to alter without the MPLA board’s approval and which resulted in his suspension.

“It has been brought to bond counsel’s attention that a number of funds were not disbursed to landowners and remain in the MPLA checking account,” Bank of Guam assistant vice president and trust officer Joseph Paulino noted in an Aug. 12 letter to Ada.

Attorney general Pamela S. Brown expressed her agreement with the bond counsel’s opinion.

She outlined the following as the results of the meeting:

* MPLA has the sole expenditure authority for payments to land compensation claimants.

* The trustee [Bank of Guam] will issue payments to land compensation claimants identified by MPLA, acting pursuant to its expenditure authority, following execution of a proper requisition. The requisition must be signed by the MPLA commissioner or other duly authorized representative, and also by the secretary of Finance.

* The paragraph in Requisition No. FY 04-03, which provides for the transfer of funds from MPLA’s project account to the land compensation sub-account will be deleted from all requisitions.

* The signature line for the MPLA comptroller on Requisition No. FY 04-03 will be deleted from all future requisitions.

* There are no remaining funds in the land compensation sub-account.

“What the AG tells us is that MPLA still has the expenditure authority, though not the authority to issue checks to landowners. What we had done with the first three requisitions was not correct,” acting MPLA commissioner Frank Eliptico told the MPLA board of directors on Wednesday.

For her part, MPLA chair Ana Demapan-Castro asked why neither Bank of Guam nor the bond counsel informed Public Lands earlier that the agency was doing things wrong.

MPLA legal counsel Alan Lane said the information only came after MPLA itself requested clarification based on the rumors it has been hearing.

The issue about land compensation disbursement procedure arose from Ada’s alteration of Requisition No. FY 04.03.

In the schedule of requisition request prepared by Hofschneider and MPLA comptroller David Demapan, the amount $216,322 is altered with a strikethrough and above it is typed $134,695.91.