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 under attention with lawmakers’ aid 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,” he has requested that this provision be included in the budget law for the next four years.
Guam law does not provide specific written authorization for protection to be furnished to the government department, on or off the island.
According to Maj, the presumed authorization for government safety stems from a 36-year-old government order issued by the late Gov. Ricardo Bordallo. Manny Chong is the acting Guam Police Department leader.
Chong referred to Executive Order 83-022, dated September 1983, titled “Organization and Functions of the Department of Public Safety.”
It doesn’t mainly authorize government protection. It’s a price-saving directive considering reorganizing GPD 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.
The acting GPD leader also points to the authorization installed in Guam law underneath the 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.” However, as stated in an email reaction to The Guam Daily Post, it does not specifically authorize safety information for the government department.
GPD “always has sufficient government protection information for elected and lieutenant governors.
“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 said.
Under Calvo’s management, GPD beyond regular time in the first half of the 2018 budget year passed $564,000. Half of the overtime was paid to officials protecting the governor, first lady, and lieutenant governor.
In one case, the first girl, Christine Calvo, was accompanied by three police officers to London on a private journey. The government paid $10,603 in airfare and $7,185 per diem for the three police officers for the duration of the six-day journey, while the first female paid for her personal expenses.
Carlson stated Gov. Lou Leothat n Guerrero “doesn’t sense she desires” govt securitgovernmentl at the tim of the three journeys she has taken because, in 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 gray area,” said Carlson, “we would like to have it now, but it’s not a gray place anymore.”
