MPLA travels cost $750K in last 2 years

The Marianas Public Lands Authority has spent nearly $750,000 on travels covering airfare, per diem fees, and car rentals since 2004, based on unaudited monthly record of travel advances released by the agency.

Travel advances in 2004 reached $301,644, and the yearly total went up to $406,388 in 2005. They include Japan and U.S. trips in January 2005 by eight unnamed MPLA employees, who made a total of $54,807 in travel advances for the trips; and a $42,282-November 2005 trip by three board members, the commissioner and a legal counsel to Honolulu, and some proceeded to Washington, D.C., for matters related to the MPLA’s lawsuit against Micronesian Telecommunications Corp., other telecommunication matters, and meetings with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

There was also a trip to Guam and the Philippines by three MPLA officials in August 2005, which resulted in total travel advances of $6,309.50.

For the two-year period since January 2004, the MPLA spent some $410,971 on airfares; $273,100 on per diem fees; $25,974 on car rentals and other ground transportation; and $24,542 on “other fees.”

In January 2006 alone, travel advances totaled some $26,528, excluding the trip to Seattle, Washington by Demapan-Castro, board member Nicolas Nekai and commissioner Edward DeLeon Guerrero. The January trip to attend the four-day conference of the Western States Land Commissioners Association, which cost the MPLA some $22,425, appeared in the December 2005 summary of MPLA travel advances.

In 2005, the highest monthly total of travel advances reached some $63,328 in January. The bulk of this amount came from the weeklong to 17-day Japan and U.S. trips of eight unspecified MPLA representatives. Besides going to Japan, MPLA records show that three of the agency’s representatives also went to Michigan, Arkansas, and Nevada in trips that lasted 16 to 17 days, while five others also made one-week trips to Los Angeles and Nevada.

Unlike the rest of the monthly summaries released by the MPLA, the January 2005 summary did not specify particular MPLA employees who made the travel advances. The Japan and U.S. trips by the eight MPLA representatives cost the agency some $54,807—$34,985 covered airfares; $16,676 in per diem fees; $2,170 in car rentals or ground transportation costs; and $975 in “other fees.”

In July 2005, travel advances totaled some $62,741, with most of the funds going to airfares that amounted to $41,894. The high airfare cost pulled the month’s travel advances to the second highest spot in 2005. Per diem fees in that month reached $13,847; car rentals and ground transportation, $1,910; and “other fees,” $5,090.

Eight MPLA officials, including Demapan-Castro, daughter Sharee Maratita, and former deputy commissioner Frank Eliptico, made trips to the United States in July 2005. Demapan-Castro and Eliptico, together with Homestead Division chief Connie Togawa, went on a one-week trip to Colorado, with each of them spending $5,682.20 on airfares and receiving per diem fees of $1,800 each, including ground transportation cost and “other fees,” those officials made total travel advances of $7,942.20 each for Demapan-Castro and Togawa, and $8,437.20 for Eliptico.

Maratita, the chief of the MPLA’s Real Estate and Development Division, Margarita Salas, and Helen Camacho went to Chicago, Illinois in trips lasting less than a week, costing the agency some $4,725.60 in airfare and $1,400 in per diem fees for each of them. Including ground transportation cost and “other fees,” Maratita and Camacho’s travel advances totaled $8,125.60, while that of Salas reached $6,230.60. Employee Teresita Santos left Rota for over a week of trip to Colorado and made a travel advance of $8,092.15—covering $5,832.15 for airfare and $1,800 for per diem fee.

Total travel advances in November 2005 reached some $55,343, with the bulk of the fund going to airfare cost totaling some $34,745. Travel advances for per diem fees during the month totaled $17,667; ground transportation, $2,380; and “other fees,” $550.

In that month, commissioner DeLeon Guerrero and legal counsel Ramon Quichocho’s travel advances totaled $10,235.38 each for an 11-day travel to Washington D.C. to meet with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in Honolulu and then with a certain Tom Crowe in D.C. regarding the agency’s lawsuit against Micronesian Telecommunications Corp. DeLeon Guerrero and Quichocho each incurred $6,046 in airfare cost, $700 in ground transportation cost, and received per diem fees of $3,489.38 each.

Board member Nekai left for Honolulu for a four-day trip during the month to meet with “various companies with wireless phones,” and made a travel advance of $7,435.38—$6,046 for airfare and $1,389.38 in per diem fee. Nekai made the trip on the day that Demapan-Castro arrived from a one-week trip to Honolulu to meet with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, for which the MPLA chair made a travel advance of $6,941.08—$4,161.70 for airfare; $2,289.38 and $490 for ground transportation.

On the day that Nekai left for Honolulu on Nov. 24, 2005, board member Felix Sasamoto also left for Honolulu to meet with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and then to DC to meet with Crowe, for a total travel advance of $7,435.38—$6,046 for airfare and $1,389.38 for per diem fee. Sasamoto, Nekai, DeLeon Guerrero, and Quichocho had the same date of arrival on Saipan on Nov. 28.

MPLA legal counsel Alan Lane also made a travel advance of $7,705.03 in November 2005 to attend the National College of District Attorney’s Government Civil Practice. Lane traveled to San Diego on Nov. 9 and had a return date of Dec. 18. The travel advance pertained to airfare of $4,063.80; $2,601.23 in per diem fee; $490 in ground transportation cost; and $550 in “other fees.”

Although the MPLA’s airfare cost for its employees cost less than that of November 2005, total travel advances in August reached a comparative level at $50,684, which notably covered a higher per diem fee total of $22,553.20.

Recipients of $1,500 per diem fees for a less than a-week Honolulu trip included Demapan-Castro, Quichocho, and employees Jesse Palacios and Rachel Roque. Each incurred airfare cost of $4,140.65 and ground transportation cost of $90, except for Quichocho, whose ground transportation cost reached $420. Roque also received “other fees” in the amount of $149. Travel advances of Demapan-Castro and Palacios for the trip totaled $5,730.65 each; Quichocho’s, $6,060.65; and Roque, $5,879.65.

Also in August 2005, Quichocho, commissioner DeLeon Guerrero and board member Nekai went on a trip to Guam and the Philippines, leaving and arriving Saipan on Nov. 3 and 8, respectively. Nekai and Quichocho each made travel advances of $1,986.50, with each amount covering $1,011.50 in airfare and $975 in per diem fees. DeLeon Guerrero had the same airfare cost and per diem fee, but his travel advance was slightly higher at $2,336.50 due to a $350 car rental or ground transportation cost.

MPLA spokesman Ed Arriola Jr. said he is still looking into the summary of monthly travel advances by employees at the MPLA, but he quickly pointed out that there was no impropriety in making them.

“I believe, with this board—they’re very knowledgable about public lands—whenever off-island travels were taken, I believe that they were justified just like [those of] any other agency in the government,” Arriola said. “These [summaries of travel advances] are just the covers of the book. Travels could be explained and supported by documents.”

Arriola allowed the Saipan Tribune to inspect MPLA records pursuant to an Open Government Act request.