In 2004, lawmakers passed Act 51, with the intent that public school facilities could be built and repaired more efficiently if the work fell under the state Department of Education umbrella. Previously, it had been handled by the state Department of Accounting and General Services, the agency that oversees much of the state’s contracting work.
Judging by the results of an internal audit that DOE recently released, the transition of the duties from DAGS to DOE still isn’t complete after eight years, with many projects being poorly managed.
Facilities construction and repair duties clearly need better coordination and consolidation within the DOE.
That’s a subject that the Board of Education must take up, and even the Legislature may need to address when it reconvenes in January.
The DOE hired Deloitte & Touche, the auditing and financial consulting firm, and the 69-page report on the department’s Facilities Development Branch was the second of two audits performed.
The branch manages construction for most repair and maintenance and capital improvement projects on Oahu; a "service level agreement" put neighbor island school projects under DAGS supervision. Some projects are managed by third-party consultants.
This arrangement apparently doesn’t work very smoothly. Among the findings:
» The branch policies and procedures for handling design and construction projects are outdated and in need of streamlining and more consistent document filing.
» Its management of capital planning and construction bidding is inefficient. This means that needed projects may get delayed or entirely overlooked, and that the branch doesn’t get the best use out of its biennial budget.
» Both the DOE branch and DAGS need to provide more frequent updates to the schools about backlogs and priorities for repair and construction projects.
» Delays in meeting project needs on the neighbor islands led some of these schools to spend their own regular funds — their share of the state Weighted Student Formula — on repair projects for which money was already allotted.
In its response, DOE officials cited an action plan underway to address the complaints. Actions will include adopting a clearer matrix of facilities needs to improve responsiveness, accelerating creation of a centralized digital document database and increasing staffing so that project coordinators will be able to review designs more carefully and avoid complications.
However, it seems the root of the problem lies in the division of responsibility and oversight between two agencies. The audit noted that "the standards set by the service level agreement with (DAGS) do not appear to adequately meet the needs of neighbor island schools."
DOE Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi this week sent a letter detailing responses to BOE Chairman Don Horner. In it, she wrote that the audit concludes "that DAGS has not been doing a satisfactory job of supporting the schools on the neighbor islands," adding that there will be a discussion with DAGS officials about how to overcome these problems.
For its part, DAGS also has responded to the audit by citing its staffing cuts since the recession of 2008. Officials also stated in their written response that they’re willing to revise the agreement, making it simpler for lower-cost projects to be handled more quickly.
But it’s hard to see how even a revised agreement between two agencies could be simpler than unifying the entire process within the DOE. The state administration, as well as members of the school board and lawmakers, should focus on consolidation as a means to the most desirable end: upgrading facilities in a timely way, for the benefit of public school students.
