Guam – The Office of Public Accountability is not satisfied with the IBC’s explanation of the maintenance costs for the planed new JFK High School, and that could delay what officials had hoped would be a September groundbreaking for the school.
In a letter to Department of Public Works Director Andy Leon Guerrero, Public Auditor Doris Flores Brooks states that “We could not reach the same conclusion as the Department of Public Works [DPW] as to the reasonableness of IBC’s cost analysis.”
IBC won the bid to build the long delayed JFK Campus at the now abandoned Upper Tumon site. But protests from the Guam Community Improvement Foundation [GCIF] to the bid award to IBC had delayed the groundbreaking. The Governor proposed emergency legislation that was passed late last month in an effort to put an end to the protests. GCIF President Tony Sgro then said they will not file any further protests, after which GEDA said they now expected ground breaking for the school to occur by the first week of September.
Its not clear if this issue will further delay the project.
However the OPA, which has been arbitrating the bid protests, has said they are satisfied with all of IBC’s explanations about the costs of the project except for the maintenance costs. The OPA asked for a further explanation from DPW which has been in charge of reviewing the all the bids.
DPW recently provided that explanation which the OPA has now found it insufficient.
The OPA has not yet signed off on the contract award to IBC, and they must due so for the groundbreaking to take place.
In her letter today, Brooks states that the OPA finds that IBC’s analysis does not:
*include a clear methodology to justify costs
*properly reference survey data or explain the basis for utilizing each benchmark figure referenced.
*provide details for the Guam Adjustment Factor of 1.3 or how it was derived.
*provide details for the list of proposed maintenance services.
* provide information on Standard vs. Exceptional maintenance costs.
*provide information on the Department of Education’s maintenance costs vs. contracted [IBC] maintenance costs
*address incentives to encourage better performance.
The OPA has called for a meeting with DPW and DOE to get a “clear understanding” of the maintenance services and “whether the annual lease payment will include the cost of maintenance.”
