After stretching on for roughly a month, the appeal hearing on one of the largest government contracts in recent history is coming to a close. Assistant Attorney General Tom Keeler represents the Government of Guam, which is aligned with the winning offeror the Guam Educational Facilities Foundation. He claims that the arguments of losing offeror CoreTech International rely primarily on innuendo and speculation.

Keeler said, "The government acted in good faith to provide the details of the negotiations, to comply with statutory requirements, and is the best value for the department of education, the residents of Guam, and specifically and most importantly the students and staff at Simon Sanchez High School."

Meanwhile, winning offeror GEFF is in agreement. GEFF is represented by Attorney Ike Aguigui, who said, "CoreTech stomps its feet down, saying, 'No, no, no - you're not admitting what I want you to say that you're circumventing this cap', and yet CoreTech continues to invent these issues where there are none."

On the other hand, losing offeror CoreTech International thinks the procurement was mishandled. CTI attorney Joyce Tang said, "If this office deems that this procurement record is accurate, with all of its violations, all of the missing information then no procurement in Guam will ever be bad and this procurement record law is rendered meaningless. How can our community have faith and trust in our government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny?"

While the hearing ends today, the public auditor must now make a decision on the appeal. Until then, any progress on the reconstruction of Simon Sanchez High School or the repair of 35 other schools cannot move forward.