by Michele Catahay

Guam - The Department of Education is one step closer to closing negotiations to hire a third-party fiduciary agent to oversee federal dollars. Deputy Superintendent of Finance and Administrative Services Taling Taitano tells KUAM News their legal counsel has been working with the Attorney General's Office on the matter.

"We will be preparing a draft to go to the third party-perspective third party. We still have a couple of clauses we're working on. We're probably going to have a conference call in the next couple of days just to work through those. But it looks very good. We're down to about one or two clauses," she explained.

It was a close call for DOE last week because it said there weren't enough funds to cover DEED and other reform programs. But last minute discussions with the U.S. Department of Education have allowed DOE to use American Reinvestment and Recovery Act funds temporarily until the agency has access to the consolidated grant.