The Guam Department of Education closed fiscal year 2024 with a $67.4 million operational surplus but continued to show significant weaknesses in financial controls and federal compliance, according to an audit released Jan. 2, prompting renewed calls for reform from Senate Education Chair Vincent A.V. Borja.
Independent auditors Ernst & Young LLP issued unmodified, or clean, opinions on GDOE’s FY 2024 financial statements and on compliance with the Consolidated Grant to the Outlying Areas. However, the auditors issued qualified opinions on other major federal programs, including Child Nutrition, Special Education and the Education Stabilization Fund, and reported that GDOE remains a high-risk grantee with the U.S. Department of Education, a designation it has held for 22 years.
The audit identified three material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting and four material weaknesses and six significant deficiencies related to compliance, resulting in about $1 million in questioned costs. Auditors also cited delayed audit issuance, leadership turnover, weaknesses in grant management and approximately $12.1 million in expired or at-risk federal grant funds.
“We, as leaders, continue to fail — and that includes the Legislature, past administrations, and the Guam Education Board,” Borja said in a statement issued Jan. 3. “Something has to change.”
Borja warned that recent procurement and compliance issues raise concerns following the July 2024 removal of the Third-Party Fiduciary, noting the risk to federal funding. He also defended legislative resistance to repeated emergency funding requests, saying cash infusions without reform have masked deeper problems.
Borja said new budget amendments now require fiscal execution plans, quarterly reporting and public certification by the superintendent, and he signaled that broader education governance reforms — including restructuring the Guam Education Board or consolidating oversight — will be openly debated in the coming weeks.