The operational and financial ghosts haunting the Guam Department of Education are beginning to manifest in fundamental and concrete ways. Before this month began, for example, information from Guam Power Authority shows GDOE had racked up more than $4 million in power bills.
“Neither GDOE nor the administrative offices are in danger of having their power service interrupted as of April 22, 2025,” a prepared response from GPA management to Kandit’s inquiry states.
The GDOE power bill issue, however, was troublesome enough that the Consolidated Commission on Utilities (the elected body that governs GPA and Guam Waterworks Authority) held a work session to address the problem.
That led to an April 1 payment to GPA of $1,212,170.36, and then a payment of $1,217,568.61 last Friday, according to information from GPA.
“The balance on this account is just over $2 million with only $1,069,824.21 in the 16-30 days past due column,” the GPA statement reads.
Prior to the April 18 payment, GPA charts showed that GDOE’s power bill arrears that had aged between 31 and 60 days was $1.3 million. It’s three-month-old arrears was nearly $1 million.
GDOE’s apparent problem paying its power bills is the latest in a string of concerning news about the management of financials at the agency, the single largest in the government of Guam. The agency, unlike the majority of the executive branch is not governed at all by the governor. A hybrid elected-appointed Guam Education Board is responsible for the agency.
The dichotomy between GDOE’s financial position and that of the executive branch under Governor Lou Leon Guerrero’s general and direct oversight could not be more stark, raising renewed interest in the governor’s call last year for the legislature to return control of GDOE temporarily to the governor. The legislative oversight chairman of GDOE at the time, Chris Barnett, said “hell no” to the proposal, expressing concern that Ms. Leon Guerrero would use the power to hire hundreds of people into the agency to benefit Joshua Tenorio’s campaign for governor in 2026.
Kandit has asked GDOE deputy superintendent for finance and administrative services M. Wade Borja Paul about the accumulated arrears, and how the agency will pay its current balance of more than $2 million. As of the publication of this story, Mr. Paul has not responded to the inquiry.
1 Comments
Paul Tobiason
04/23/2025 at 9:50 AM
Is the big solar system at JFK High School working now ? Right across the street is Shell station. Their solar is working.