During his testimony on the 2020 budget bill on Aug. 6, Lester Carlson, the director of the Bureau of Budget and Management Research, requested lawmakers to don’t forget a provision that would revise cutting-edge travel regulations to “permit for off-island travel for the functions of government protection.”
As asked, the revised finances invoice now underneath attention with the aid of lawmakers consists of a provision to allow the cost of off-island protection for the governor and lieutenant governor to be paid via Guam taxpayers.
On-Page 133 of the revised model of Bill 186 under Chapter 13, Section 1, Government Funded Travel Prohibited, an exemption has been brought beneath letter J. It states:
“Executive Security functions underneath the Guam Police Department for the motive of providing executive security to I Maga’hågan Guåhan, and I Sigundo Maga’låhen Guåhan while traveling off-island to symbolize the people of Guam at meetings and features determined critical to the welfare of Guam.”
Carlson explained that cutting-edge law concerning executive security “is a gray vicinity” and he has requested for this provision to be included within the budget law for the beyond four years.
There has in no way been specific written authorization in Guam law bearing in mind protection to be furnished to the govt department, on or off-island.
The presumed authorization for govt safety grows out of a 36-year-old govt order issued via the late Gov. Ricardo Bordallo, according to Maj. Manny Chong, acting Guam Police Department leader.
Chong referred to Executive Order 83-022 titled “Organization and Functions of the Department of Public Safety.” It was issued on September 1983.
It doesn’t mainly authorize govt protection. It’s a price-saving directive taking into account the reorganization of GPD to be able to create a greater “efficient and powerful administration and operation of the department.”
However, the reorganization resulted within the established order of an Executive Security Section “within the Special Operations Division of the Operations Bureau,” in line with Chong.
In addition, the acting GPD leader points to the authorization installed in Guam law underneath Guam Code Annotated, Power of Chief of Police
That phrase gives the leader the strength “to undertake appropriate guidelines, pointers and regulations to ensure the Department’s responsiveness to the protection, security and peace-preserving desires of the community.” It does now not specifically authorize safety info for the government department.
GPD “has always supplied” govt protection info for elected governors and lieutenant governors, Chong stated in an emailed reaction to The Guam Daily Post.
“There are dangers taken by using elected officers because they’re so visible and open to the general public,” Chong stated. The chief government officials of Guam “ought to be protected,” he stated.
Under the Calvo management, GPD beyond regular time in the first 1/2 of the 2018 budget yr passed $564,000. Half of the overtime turned into paid to officials offering protection to the governor, first lady, and lieutenant governor.
In one case, first girl Christine Calvo was accompanied via three police officers to London on a private journey, which fee the government $10,603 in airfare and $7,185 in per diem, for the 3 police officers for the duration of the six-day journey. The first female paid for her personal manner.
Carlson stated Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero “doesn’t sense she desires” govt security all the time. Of the three journeys she has taken due to the fact that January, no government protection observed her. First gentleman Jeffrey Cook has declined all give of protection.
However, safety officers went along with the governor on current trips, one to Chuuk and the other to Pohnpei, on the insistence of GPD, said, Carlson. “She’s trying to set an example,” said Carlson.
But “while GPD requests (executive protection) and I approve it, I’d want to have it clarified and stated in law,” he stated.
“Since it is the type of a gray area,” said Carlson, “we would like to now not have it’s a gray place anymore.”
