By Gerardo R. Partido
Variety News Staff

THE Guam Public School System has defended its policy of making federally funded employees account for their working hours.
GPSS federal programs administrator Ike Santos said this is needed to improve transparency and accountability in the public school system’s federally funded programs.
“This is nothing new. This requirement has been in place by virtue of OMD Circular A-827. Not only GPSS but all GovGuam agencies with federally funded programs should be following this,” Santos said.
Some federally funded employees have been complaining that requiring them to account for their time every 30 minutes would be impractical and painstaking.
But Santos said the procedure is quite simple and easy to do. “For instance, if you are a teacher and you should be in the classroom most of the time, you just have to enter a single code on the tracking sheet,” Santos said.
He hinted that those opposed to this requirement might have something to hide and have some extra activities going on.
Because GPSS has not been complying with the federal tracking requirement, Santos said the school system has already lost close to $500,000.
“This is one of the measures that we must adopt to clear up our audit findings and get GPSS off high-risk grantee status with the U.S. Department of Education,” Santos said.
He said the tracking procedure is also one of the measures provided for in GPSS’s Corrective Action Plan, or CAP, which was drawn up specifically to address federal concerns.
The CAP provides for better internal controls and monitoring district-wide to improve communication and upgrade reporting policies and procedures.
To ensure accountability and proper management of federal funds, the CAP requires the following:
* Timeliness of quarterly program and financial reports;
* Personnel certification on allocation of time to programs;
* Fixed asset inventory for all assets below and above $5,000; and
* Follow-up on corrective action plans by program or operational areas.
According to Santos, the CAP is a “back-to-basics approach” that applies the full measure of accountability and puts the decisions back into the hands of those who are affected the most — the schools.
Last summer, the U.S. Department of Education withheld federal funding to GPSS, citing the public school system’s lack of fiscal accountability and lax management practices and controls.