NEWS: Sen. Francisco Borja took the max allowance in 2019: $60K
By Jacob Nakamura
(Tumon, Guam) Sen. Francisco Borja of Tinian took the maximum allowance every month in 2019. The Commonwealth paid him $60,000 in total ($5,000 each month) for which none of his spending can be verified as having a public purpose.
Mr. Borja is one of the Republican members of the Legislature who refused to disclose his receipts of his expenditures from the allowances.
Kandit received records of the allowances instead from the Department of Finance through and Open Government act request. Unlike the other legislators we've already covered, who made multiple month-to-month requests for varying amounts, Mr. Borja only made two requests:
An October 1, 2018 letter to then-Secretary of Finance Larissa Larson for $5,000 for every month of Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct. 2018 through Sept. 2019)
An October 1, 2019 letter to Secretary of Finance David Atalig, Jr. for $5,000 for every month of Fiscal Year 2020 (Oct. 2019 through Sept. 2020)
Unless Mr. Borja recently has amended his second letter, he is set to take the maximum allowable monthly allowance for the remainder of this fiscal year as the rest of the government struggles through a significant furlough of 20 percent of workers's hours, delayed tax refunds, and unpaid vendor payables.
