Port Authority of Guam General Manager Rory J. Respicio has asked Oversight Chair Telena Nelson to identify what Port employees she has heard are criminals in order to avoid those statements casting such a dark cloud over the hardworking men and women of the Port Authority of Guam.
The Port will be the focus tomorrow for a second week in a row of oversight hearings on the hiring practices of the Port as well as the Legislature’s inquiry of the Port Authority of Guam’s Drug-Free Workplace Program.
“You have made public statements that you are looking into ‘anyone hired at the Port with a criminal record,’” Respicio wrote to Nelson today. “You stated in your press release, ‘While I continue to have confidence in the Port’s merit system, we must listen to the concerns of our community and ensure that our government is hiring qualified workers deserving of the taxpayer’s dime.’ You further stated in this same press release that ‘An additional audit of the Port will help us understand the Port’s hiring process and the measures they take to provide our people the gold standard of public service.’”
Respicio told Senator Nelson that in order for the Port to uphold the new Platinum Standard to which the agency has achieved at the Port Authority of Guam, agency officials compiled a listing of all of the Port’s hires beginning in Fiscal Year 2010 present. The General Manager assured the Senator that the Port will address her legislative concerns with this matter and any other matter she may hear concerning the Port and that the agency is committed to doing so in the interest of maintaining the present high level of transparency and accountability.
Respicio asked Senator Nelson to identify any individual she has heard are criminals, noting that her identifying these Port employees who she has heard are criminals will permit the Port to focus all attention solely on those individuals.
Respicio said, “Anything short of pinpointing any specific individual who Sen. Nelson has heard is a criminal hired at the Port implies that ALL Port employees hired during this time frame have criminal records.”
