Hundreds of Office of Public Accountability audit recommendations have been ignored by Government of Guam agencies, resulting in major tax leakage and loss of revenue, according to the OPA.  A bill currently before senators seeks to rectify the issue by expanding the OPA’s enforcement authority.

BJ Cruz, Guam's public auditor, stated, "You can't continue to have an office that issues these reports and everybody just chucks it." He raised such concerns over his agency's audits being ignored despite follow-ups, pointing to a gap in their authority to hold agencies accountable.

Senator Shawn Gumataotao asked, "How many OPA recommendations have yet to be implemented on the average? And how many weeks, months, years have they sat idle?" to which Cruz replied, "It would be, probably, in the hundreds."

Cruz testified in support of Bill 17, which seeks to expand their enforcement power.  The proposed legislation's author, Senator Sabina Perez, noted, "It is unacceptable for agencies to disregard the public trust by avoiding implementing potentially beneficial suggestions. Bill 17-38 clarifies the Public Auditor’s authority to petition the court when agencies ignore audit recommendations without valid justification."

Cruz is concerned about revenue loss, saying ‘major tax leakage’ resulting from ignored audits should be addressed especially with federal funding uncertainty. Within the next few days, the OPA will be issuing a performance audit on liquor tax collections.

"You know that there’s lots of liquor being [brought in] and you keep wondering why when you look at the collection, it’s practically nothing," he said.

He says the Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency failed to implement a previous audit recommendation to get a digital invoice scanner.  This has made it impossible to accurately track liquor tax collections.

"When we started this audit, they had to pull 16 officers off the floor to go into the warehouses to go through hundreds of boxes to find the invoices to try to show they received liquor shipments," he said. "It’s impossible to say how much actually came in, how much was put on the shelves, how much went to the military, how much was exported to the outer islands and how much was collected. We have no idea because that’s not been done."

The OPA is also conducting performance audits on agencies that rely heavily on federal funds to ensure they are in compliance and not at risk of losing funding, with Cruz saying, "Because we don’t want the homeland security [case] to be a problem that’s in other departments."

A similar bill was introduced last term but was vetoed by the governor.