{"content":[{"text":"I.","bbox":{"left":0.441373,"top":0.088591,"width":0.01097999999999999,"height":0.020212000000000008}},{"text":"OPINION","bbox":{"left":0.467255,"top":0.088591,"width":0.08043100000000003,"height":0.020212000000000008}},{"text":"A.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.123439,"width":0.01902000000000001,"height":0.020212000000000008}},{"text":"Statement","bbox":{"left":0.146471,"top":0.123439,"width":0.07839199999999999,"height":0.020212000000000008}},{"text":"As of the late 1990’s, VIDE experienced serious and recurring deficiencies in its \n administration of Federally funded educational programs. Of significance here, was its \n ineffective property management system for personal property purchased with Federal funds \n such as computers, calculators, and other electronic equipment. In particular, newly purchased \n items of equipment were not consistently entered into the property tracking system or, if entered, \n some of the items of equipment remained in the warehouses undelivered, were delivered to an \n incorrect location, or were misplaced or stolen. As of 1998, VIDE began to implement the \n corrective actions necessary to revamp its property management system as well as to correct \n other deficiencies in its administration of Federal grant programs. Progress was slow. As a \n result, VIDE was designated as a “high-risk” grantee and special conditions were imposed. \n Later, ED and VIDE entered into a compliance agreement that permitted VIDE to continue to \n receive funding while it implemented a structured plan to correct the administrative and \n programmatic deficiencies.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.158288,"width":0.7598039999999999,"height":0.229303}},{"text":"In May 2001 and while VIDE was restructuring its administrative practices, the United \n States Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) initiated audits of the St \n Croix and the St. Thomas/St. John school districts to determine whether VIDE was appropriately \n managing and accounting for equipment purchased with Federal funds under grants from the \n Technology Literacy Challenge Fund Program, Title VI Program, and Part B of the IDEA \n Program. The present proceeding addresses several findings of these audits.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.402227,"width":0.76098,"height":0.10733300000000001}},{"text":"The auditors examined VIDE’s property management system by reviewing single audit \n reports and work papers from 1998 through 2000, equipment purchase requisitions and inventory \n schedules, as well as interviewing VIDE officials and reconciling individual school inventory \n schedules with the actual items of equipment located on-site at a number of schools.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.524197,"width":0.763137,"height":0.07248399999999999}},{"text":"Among the matters examined, the auditors focused on whether VIDE complied with \n 34 C.F.R. § 80.32(d), a regulation that requires a grant recipient to maintain procedures for \n managing equipment acquired with Federal grant funds. Of particular concern to the auditors \n was whether VIDE had records that provided a paper trail that began with the acquisition of an \n asset, tracked its physical location during the period of its usage, and concluded with the date and \n manner of its disposition.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.611318,"width":0.7641169999999999,"height":0.10733300000000001}},{"text":"In order to verify the presence of the paper trail, the auditors focused on assets purchased \n by VIDE between October 7, 1996, and October 31, 2001. The auditors selected 16 of the 59 \n locations in the St. Croix school district to conduct on-site visits to verify the presence of the \n assets assigned to those locations. In a similar fashion, the auditors selected 23 of the 66 \n locations in the St. Thomas school district to conduct on-site visits. Most of the sites selected \n were schools that received items of equipment whose total purchased costs were substantial.","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.733287,"width":0.757843,"height":0.10733400000000004}},{"text":"The on-site visits were conducted over nine business days between December 3, and \n December 14, 2001. In an attempt to reconcile the items of equipment assigned to each school","bbox":{"left":0.117647,"top":0.855257,"width":0.7436860000000001,"height":0.037636}},{"text":"2","bbox":{"left":0.495098,"top":0.917379,"width":0.00980399999999998,"height":0.020212000000000008}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}