April 6, 2005 – The U.S. Department of Education, dissatisfied with the V.I. government's pace fulfilling the compliance agreement, ordered the V.I. government to hire an independent, third-party trustee within 15 days.
At a Senate Government Operations and Consumer Affairs hearing Wednesday, Property and Procurement Commissioner Marc Biggs, a signatory to the compliance agreement, told senators that the USDOE had written the order on March 31.
Earlier in March, Board of Education Executive Director Tregenza Roach, who is also a signatory to the compliance agreement, informed the board that the USDOE had requested the Education Department hire an independent third-party to manage the department's federal funds due to its failure to effectively use those funds. (See " USDOE Calls For Trustee to Manage Federal Funds").
Roach said the government would do so before the Sept. 23 expiration of the compliance agreement
Evidently, federal officials see more urgency in the situation than the local officials.
Biggs said federal officials would hire someone to manage the funds on its behalf, if the Virgin Islanders don't do something within the next two weeks.
The Education Department entered into the compliance agreement with the federal government in September 2002. (See "V.I. Posts Education Pact Compliance Data Online").
However, since that time, only one of the four issues of the compliance agreement has been successfully dealt with, Biggs told the committee.
The four issues were:
– Program planning, design and evaluation.
– Fiscal management.
– Human capital, to include the recruiting and hiring practices.
– Property management and procurement.
Biggs did not specify which of the four issues was dealt with successfully. However, he did say that the federal government's major concern was the department's failure to successfully implement a Financial Management System.
"In all honesty, the government has failed," Biggs said.
In response to questioning by Sen. Shawn-Michael Malone, Biggs said the Governor's Fiscal Officers Association was contracted to do a study to assess the needs of the various departments for formulating the financial system. Biggs said that's as far as he knew about the formulating of the system.
"The leadership is not leading the ship," Sen. Ronald Russell said. "We are allowing this government to go into receivership because we're not providing good leadership."
Biggs said he is disappointed with the whole way the compliance agreement was being handled by the federal government. He said he is sure there are other jurisdictions with similar problems that are not being treated the way the local Education Department is being treated.
Education officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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