TAMUNING, Guam — The Guam Department of Public Works has rejected all proposals and cancelled the procurement for the new Simon Sanchez High School, denying all three protests filed by General Pacific Services Inc. and announcing it will reissue the long-delayed project “as quickly as legally possible.”
The decision, issued Monday by DPW Director Vincent P. Arriola with the concurrence of Attorney General Douglas B. Moylan and the Guam Department of Education, ends the current Request for Proposals under the Ma Kåhat Act of 2013 without a contract, after a Notice of Intent to Award had gone to Core Tech International Inc.
“We will not allow GPS to hold Simon Sanchez students hostage to years of needless litigation,” Arriola said. “DPW followed the law, the evaluation process was sound, and all three protests were denied. But the students cannot continue waiting while one unsuccessful proposer attempts to secure an award it did not receive.”
According to the consolidated decision, GPS filed three protests: a November 2025 protest alleging DPW failed to maintain a complete procurement record; a December 2025 protest challenging a $16,377,125 Limited Project Scope Agreement for demolition work as an unlawful standalone procurement; and a second December 2025 protest alleging Core Tech’s proposal was non-responsive because its pricing exceeded the Ma Kåhat Act ceiling.
DPW denied all three. On the record protest, the department said GPS and its attorney inspected the multi-volume procurement file in person in June 2025, and that a flash drive later provided at GPS’s request was never represented as the official record. On the demolition protest, DPW said demolition was expressly part of the original RFP that all proposers, including GPS, competed on, and that the protest was untimely. On the pricing protest, the department said the procurement was qualifications-based, that only the highest-ranked proposer’s sealed pricing is opened, and that Core Tech executed a Conditional Acceptance in September 2025 agreeing to comply with the statutory financing ceiling of $166,365,000. No final contract price was ever agreed, the decision states.
The protests stayed the procurement for months. A hearing officer rejected DPW’s February 2026 determination to proceed with the award despite the protests, and the Office of Public Accountability appeal proceedings were dismissed in June. The decision notes GPS reiterated as recently as June 24 that it seeks award of the contract, which DPW said indicates the matter “will likely be subject to litigation and thus, indefinite delay.”
DPW said the procurement environment was also compromised by the public release of incomplete pricing and negotiation information, noting the department took what it called the unprecedented step of publishing the procurement record, including negotiations, on its website.
“This cancellation is not an admission that the procurement was flawed, quite the opposite,” Arriola said. “It is a decision to protect the students from the much greater risk of having this project tied up in court for years. Our responsibility is to deliver a new school, not to defend an otherwise sound procurement indefinitely so a disgruntled bidder can capitalize on the archaic automatic stay provision in our procurement law.”
The department renewed its call for the Guam Legislature to reform the procurement process governing the project, noting the Governor previously transmitted legislation to address future protests and called the Legislature into emergency session, but that lawmakers have not yet acted. “Critical community projects should not be stopped for months or years by frivolous protests that fail to identify a material violation of law,” Arriola said.
The decision constitutes DPW’s final agency action. Any appeal must be filed within 15 days under Guam procurement law.
The project, authorized under the Ma Kåhat Act, encompasses financing, demolition, design, construction, lease/leaseback, insurance and capital maintenance of a new Simon Sanchez campus serving students across Guam’s northern villages.
