Report: Poor condition of BIE school facilities is a longstanding concern. Image: Bob Korn/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe Interior Department’s Indian Affairs branch has been “unable to effectively manage deferred maintenance” at Bureau of Indian Education schools, despite receiving additional funding to address an estimated $1 billion backlog in maintenance, an inspector general report has said.
“The poor condition of BIE school facilities is a longstanding concern,” the report said, noting a series of GAO reports on the issue resulting in it being placed on GAO’s high-risk list in 2017. “Our own review found deficiencies causing health and safety risks as well as systemic weaknesses in facilities program management, including inaccurate data in the facility management system,” the IG said.
“BIE is and will continue to receive substantial funding for these projects through the Great American Outdoors Act, which will provide BIE up to $95 million per year through 2025 to address priority deferred maintenance projects. This supplemental funding provided to BIE schools increases the importance of accurate accounting of deferred maintenance for internal and external decision making,” it said.
However, auditors found issues including a “time-intensive funding and approval process that must go through multiple layers of approval”; processing of work orders based on a monetary threshold rather than the type of maintenance or repair needed; a “lack of managers to oversee projects”; unreliable data on work that has been performed vs. what is still to be done; and “instances of preventive maintenance, equipment, and other non-deferred maintenance work orders processed as deferred maintenance.”
It said management agreed with recommendations to address those issues as well as to immediately address certain specific that auditors found in onsite visits to some schools.
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