Last Friday the Guam Legislature held an oversight hearing in regards to the discovery of unauthorized overtime pay, amounting to $2.8 million.

Guam Homeland Security Advisor Ester Aguigui said the findings of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s audit of Guam Homeland Security/Office of Civil Defense revealed, “There were lack of internal control measures and lack of documentation, which is pretty much what FEMA had found.”

The hearing lasted over four hours and concluded with discussions of GHS/OCD’s corrective action plan.

Office Of Civil Defense Administrator Charles Esteves said this plan includes reestablishing their time keeping systems and employee training on timekeeping procedures.

“We’re going to get to where we need to get to. I’m very confident of that,” said Esteves. 

Esteves said they’re now using two network drives, as well as a Google Drive, where documents will be uploaded.

“So, we can’t say that something was accidentally deleted, we can’t say that something was not uploaded, or that we lost the entire drive,” added Esteves. 

However, the issue of recouping the $8.4 million in local tax dollars from the general fund that was transferred to GHS/OCD after federal grant funds were frozen, is still looming for lawmakers.

Department of Administration Director Ed Birn said that so far, only $400,000 of the amount has been reimbursed.