Guam Del. James Moylan, whose staff received more than $400,000 in bonuses during his first term, last week said the payments “didn’t look right,” which is why he reported it to federal law enforcement.
Moylan has not responded to questions from My Jungle Rules about his staff bonuses, but he discussed the issue Sept. 26, during a phone call on the Guam radio talk show Mornings with Patti.
Moylan in August said he requested a full investigation by the Justice Department when financial irregularities were uncovered by the congressional Payroll and Benefits office. According to Moylan, the irregularities were discovered after his chief of staff, Bobby Shringi, resigned earlier this year, and are related to Shringi’s job responsibilities.
Shringi, in response to the allegations, said he followed all rules and laws and that Moylan knew about and approved all personnel, spending and management decisions.
The situation was that I wasn’t comfortable with what I saw. And I don’t want to get into too much details because it’s in Department of Justice’s hands. But I felt this needed to be investigated, and that’s where I’m at.
My Jungle Rules examined Moylan’s payroll spending and found unusually large staff bonuses, compared to the rest of Congress. Moylan’s employees received bonuses about four times larger than the average bonus paid to House employees.
The average staff bonus for Moylan’s office was $17,000 in 2023 and $16,000 in 2024 . Shringi received the largest bonuses — $24,000 in 2023 and $25,000 in 2024. Moylan’s staff bonuses were nine times larger than the bonuses received by the CNMI delegate’s staff.
When host Patti Arroyo asked Moylan about the bonuses reported by My Jungle Rules, Moylan said, “I did recognize that, and we brought that to the Department of Justice when it was discovered. Identified it – didn’t look right – discussed it in-house within the Congress there. Then they showed me the next procedures to take and how to move forward. So we documented it, provided our information, I turned it over to the Department of Justice, and now it’s in their hands for their review.”
The House Ethics Committee normally is responsible for investigating complaints against employees suspected of violating rules or laws, but Moylan skipped that internal process and brought the issue directly to law enforcement.
“It’s public information, all salaries, you know. Just like GovGuam, you can find out anything because that’s taxpayers’ money,” Moylan said on the radio. “At the same time, we put in procedures to make sure how this happened and to make sure it doesn’t happen again. So we did some changes, some shuffling, but now I’m confident I know what we need to do.”
Most of the employees who received bonuses still work for Moylan. Those no longer employed at Moylan’s office this term include: Shringi, communications director Hannah D’Avanzo, operations director Elidio Pineiro, part-time employee Agusto Aflague, legislative assistant Matthew Steil, and executive assistant Savana Baza.
Arroyo asked Moylan if it’s a matter of questionable spending, or if something more serious happened.
“The situation was that I wasn’t comfortable with what I saw,” Moylan said. “And I don’t want to get into too much details because it’s in Department of Justice’s hands. But I felt this needed to be investigated, and that’s where I’m at.”