by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - It's a done deal: the governor has signed-off on the Department of Education's contract, securing a third-party fiduciary agent as mandated by the federal government. Governor's Deputy Chief of Staff Shawn Gumataotao says today's contract signing puts into play some long awaited $70 million in federal grant money that will be released from the U.S. Department of Education to the local DOE.

It will also allow the ball to start rolling on some 600 DOE projects that will be funded by $75 million in American Reinvestment and Recovery Act money.

USDOE and the third-party fiduciary agent Alvarez and Marsal will be on Guam next week, and according to Gumataotao they may be dumbfounded because he believes they haven't been in compliance with reporting requirements. "We are of the opinion that they may be a little surprised to see the progress or lack of from them," he said. "I know that the GDOE will say that they were just limited in resources but the reporting requirements were very stringent and they were, it really was contingent on them doing these things."

Alvarez and Marsal was actually contracted in 2006 as a third-party fiduciary agent for the U.S. Virgin Islands' Department of Education, according to an audit released by the USDOE Office of the Inspector General this past January this year. It reported A&M had not addressed all of the requirements of the contract and special conditions as required, including the effective management and oversight of property.