OPA releases report on GPD procurement

by Nick Delgado

Guam - Oversight chair Senator Adolpho Palacios definitely feels something sketchy may have happened with GPD's recent procurement of new police vehicles. The Guam OPA released the findings today of a review it conducted into the procurement of 14 patrol cars. 

Last year, the former acting chief of police changed the bid specs five times, resulting in GPD purchasing cars that weren't street ready. Had they not changed the bid specs a vendor could have provided cars that were ready for patrol. The auditor found that GSA awarded the bid to a company whose bidder's certificate had expired before the bids were opened and awarded.

"That borders on bid rigging I don't know it definitely is not fair that you just change after you let it out after you know what I bid for then you modify it? To lower it? And now it's easy to calculate whether the other bidders are going to come through. It's not fair," he said.

One of the changes GPD made to the bid was changing the original bid, which was over $500,000 to $490,000. Just below the threshold required for it to be reviewed and approved by the Office of Attorney General.