Letter to all Guam Senators - Legislative Oversight of Local Expenses and Mandates for Unemployment

Letter

Dear Senators,

As you consider action and legislation in the next immediate days to ensure public trust and
accountability as well as provide protections for our working population who have been greatly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, I would like to propose the following to (1) ensure government accountability and (2) safeguard the ability for our valued workers to avail of eligible federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance benefits that we in Congress passed last month.

First, there have been many calls for accountability and transparency of the unprecedented amount of federal funds our island will be receiving to address the COVID-19 pandemic. I applaud the Guam Legislature's action to my personal call for government accountability on these funds, and thank Senators Therese Terlaje, Perez, and Moylan for introducing a measure that would have mandated full accounting and auditing of these funds. While the Governor has declared that the Guam Legislature, and by extension the Office of Public Accountability, has no oversight authority on these federal programs, on the contrary, the funds that have been used for the initial start up of some programs come directly from your local coffers.

For instance, it is widely reported and confirmed that the $11M used to payout Economic Impact
Payments for those individuals who reported an adjusted gross income of less than $10,000 were taken from local funding, with the hope that the federal government will reimburse the government of Guam. Without accountability and proper oversight to ensure that these funds are being spent according to federal programs.

I strongly urge the Guam Legislature to exercise its full, mandated authority and power to oversee
the local funds and local government operations. Calling for oversight hearings, even virtually, must be a priority for your body. The federal government needs the Guam Legislature's help in ensuring full transparency and accountability of these federal funds so that we may protect the availability of future federal programs administered locally. Additionally, the People of Guam deserve the Guam Legislature's initiative to ensure that their tax dollars are being used appropriately and fairly across the board.

Second, the Guam Legislature must address a possible problem for our COVID-19 impacted
workers. To apply for temporary unemployment benefits provided by the federal government, the
impacted worker is required to submit certification from their employer that their employment status was changed due to a qualified reason. Some local businesses, including those in the hotel and restaurant industry, have generously agreed to provide in advance to the Guam Department of Labor information and certification of their employees whose change in employment was caused directly by the coronavirus pandemic. In order for our local administering agency to process information quickly and provide immediate relief for our worker population, the local government must require registered local businesses, as a condition of maintaining its business license in Guam, to perform the following:

1) Report pandemic related unemployment to the Guam Department of Labor within five (5)
business days of the law's passage, with reasonable exceptions; and

2) Provide the necessary certification required by the Guam Department of Labor of each
individual employee impacted to such employee, that would satisfy the Guam Department of Labor
requirements to determine if such employee qualifies for unemployment compensation. Such certification must be provided to the impacted employee without any conditions.

Further, to deter local businesses from neglecting this mandated responsibility, you must include
penalty provisions including:

1) a fine by the Guam Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, such as $1,000 for failing to
notify the Guam Department of Labor and $500 for each occurrence an impacted employee does not
receive such certification; and

2) rescinding licenses to operate in Guam for failure to comply. My office has been receiving numerous calls from our constituents concerned that they would not be able to apply for the temporary federal unemployment assistance program as their former employers are not bound to provide this information. We must get ahead of a possible problem that would prevent
hundreds, if not thousands, of our dedicated workers from qualifying for this generous federal program.

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