The Office of the Attorney General is investigating Government of Guam agencies and management responsible for keeping our roads maintained and safe. But the Department of Public Works director’s apparent refusal to cooperate leading to some accusations.

Threats of intimidation, investigation and criminal prosecution - that’s what the Guam Attorney General is accused of in a letter authored by DPW director’s legal counsel, Attorney Jay Arriola. He’s representing the director in a personal capacity.

The AG recently launched a civil and criminal investigation into the Guam Waterworks Authority for failing to restore damages on public roads. AG Doug Moylan says the poor upkeep has been costing taxpayers.

"The custody of the Government of Guam roadways are with the Department of Public Works," he maintained. "GWA, apparently, as most people are aware, do a service to their customers and receive a profit for fixing water leaks and sewer problems. And that’s what our villages and roadways have been experiencing for decades literally."

Moylan is concerned with the DPW director’s apparent refusal to cooperate with the investigation. And he made it no secret, writing it out in a letter made public.

"As my letter set forth, Assistant AG Tom Keeler was told directly by the director that he has an attorney and essentially he doesn’t want to cooperate with our investigation to get to the bottom of what has broken in our government to cause DPW to not be protecting our roadways," he said.

But Attorney Arriola contends in his letter that Moylan broke client-attorney privilege and abused his authority by making that conversation public. He says under Guam law, the AG is the director’s attorney.

And the assistant AG has been DPW’s solicitor for a decade.

Moylan says otherwise. "The Attorney General of Guam and my assistants are not attorneys for any particular department when there is a violation of a public interest," he said. "In this case, the allegation is the roadways may or may not have been properly maintained by the department of public works to protect the people's rights to protect the millions of dollars that was invested into the roadways."

Meanwhile, Arriola warns if the AG doesn’t stop his alleged threats, his firm may pursue ethical misconduct charges with the Office of Regulation Counsel.