Finding Text
Finding No.: 2023-012
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education (ED)
AL Program: 84.403 Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas
Area: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Questioned Costs: $0
Criteria:
In accordance with procurement and suspension and debarment requirements, the following are
applicable:
1. All contracts made by the non-Federal entity under the Federal award must contain
applicable provisions. Contractors that apply or bid for an award exceeding $100,000 must
file the required certification under the Byrd Anti-Lobbying Amendment (31 U.S.C. 1352).
Each such contractor certifies that it will not and has not used Federal appropriated funds
to pay any person or organization for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or
employee of any agency, among others.
2. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has approved the use of $250,000 as the small
purchases threshold for U.S. ED Federal awards. When using small purchase procedures
to procure property and services under a U.S ED Federal award, GDOE must obtain price
or rate quotations from an adequate number of qualified sources as determined appropriate
by the non-Federal entity. GDOE procurement regulations specify that no less than three
positive written quotations from businesses shall be solicited, recorded, and placed in the
procurement file.
Finding No.: 2023-012, continued
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
AL Program: 84.403 Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas
Area: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Questioned Costs: $0
Condition:
Of 25 transactions tested, aggregating $4.8M of $8.2M in total non-payroll Program costs, we
noted the following:
1. For 17 (or 68%), no Byrd Anti-Lobbying certification was provided.
No questioned cost is presented as we are unable to quantify the extent of noncompliance.
Finding No.: 2023-012, continued
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
AL Program: 84.403 Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas
Area: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Questioned Costs: $0
Condition, continued:
2. For 3 (or 12%), the small purchases method was used; however, less than three price
quotations are on file. No questioned cost is presented as the procurement can be viewed
as being technically compliant based on existing GDOE procurement regulations and
guidance from the Office of the Attorney General of Guam.
a. The procurement of digital subscriptions and online assessments of students for reading
and math includes ten solicitations and three quotations, of which two indicate “no
quote.”
b. The procurement of school uniform vouchers includes six solicitations and six
quotations, of which five indicate “no quote.” Additionally, we noted that one of the
three major providers of uniforms on Guam was not solicited.
c. The procurement of professional consulting services to provide training includes eight
solicitations and three quotations, of which two indicate “no quote.”
Cause:
GDOE did not establish and implement controls over compliance with applicable procurement and
suspension and debarment requirements.
Effect:
GDOE is in noncompliance with applicable procurement and suspension and debarment
requirements.
Identified as a Repeat Finding: 2022-008
Finding No.: 2023-012, continued
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
AL Program: 84.403 Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas
Area: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Questioned Costs: $0
Recommendation:
GDOE should enforce compliance with applicable procurement and suspension and debarment
requirements. Prior to providing a signed purchase order to the selected contractor, responsible
personnel should verify that the contractor has provided the required Byrd Anti-Lobbying
certification. Also, during the solicitation process, responsible personnel should consider
requesting additional price quotations whenever a solicitation results in a response of “no quote”
in order to allow other suppliers to participate in the Federally funded transaction.
Views of Responsible Officials:
GDOE agrees with Condition 1. Procurement records that were tested by E&Y auditors were from
procurements conducted prior to GDOE’s implementation of the required certifications. GDOE
had this finding in the prior year and has since made the updated changes to be standardized on all
procurements exceeding $100,000.
GDOE disagrees with Condition 2. In line with Title 5 of the Guam Code Annotated §5213, a “no
quote” response will not be considered a positive quotation but shall be part of the procurement
record, which shall further include a written record or memorandum of all solicitations and
responses thereto, negative or positive, orally or in writing. In the event the agency obtains less
than three (3) positive quotations and provides the attestation required by this Section, the agency
may proceed with the small purchase procurement. GDOE has the required attestations on file to
evidence that quotations were solicited to multiple potential vendors.
Plan of action and completion date:
GDOE has implemented the requirement for Byrd Anti-Lobbying Amendment certifications as
part of bid submissions exceeding $100,000. All contracts now include standardized language and
certification forms to ensure compliance.
Plan to monitor and responsible officials:
GDOE Supply Management Administrator, Carmen Charfauros, will continue to ensure that the
Byrd Anti-Lobbying certification are a part of bid submissions exceeding $100,000. The IAO will
conduct audits of GDOE’s formal procurements to ensure compliance.
Finding No.: 2023-012, continued
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Education
AL Program: 84.403 Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas
Area: Procurement and Suspension and Debarment
Questioned Costs: $0
Auditor Response:
Condition 2: In accordance with US ED’s Specific Conditions, this US ED grant is subject to the
Uniform Guidance procurement requirements for non-Federal entities, e.g., 2 CFR 200.320, which
requires price or rate quotations from an adequate number of qualified sources as determined
appropriate by the non-Federal entity. The number determined adequate by GDOE is no less than
three.