AUDIT CLEARS LA JOYA ISD; YET ANOTHER VALCO PROBE

By Juan Montoya
The La Joya ISD Food and Nutrition Service Dept. has been cleared through an audit of any wrongdoing in its purchases of produce and fruits.
The audit was triggered by a complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that alleged favoritism to certain vendors tied to members of the school board.

During the investigation, auditors also probed allegations that officers of Valco Foods, a Mexican-based vendor of meats, had been pressuring FNS administrators to buy barbacoa meat from the company contrary to the Buy American policy of the USDA.

That is relevant to the problems the Brownsville Independent School District had with the company after a batch of meat was discovered to be spoiled in BISD cafeterias at its 50 campuses.
The district issued a memo saying it was halting the purchase of the meat from the Mexican-based company with its parent offices in Gomez Palacio, Dgo.

The BISD said it was launching an investigation into how meats processed there ended up on the cafeteria tables and said it had stopped purchasing from that source.
However, an information request on how much the district had paid to the vendor (Valco Foods, an offshoot of a Mexican company with an office in McAllen) generated a response from the district that it had paid Valco Foods $322,712.35 (see graphic at right) over the last two years.

The district is part of the Region 1 purchasing pool and gets the processed meat at a whooping $6.29 per pound. Valco had a contract to provide Region 1 with 20,000 pounds of meat per month for two years with an option for a third one at the end of 2017.

The odor emanating from the bad meat purchase launched the investigation into the BISD's Food and Nutrition Service Dept. at the district. It's director, Silverio Capistran was later found dead in his truck of an apparent self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.

We now know that earlier in the day, Capistran had gone to speak with investigators from several agencies. What he said or whether it led to his apparent suicide is not known.

That apparent suicide didn't stop others from inquiring into the operation of that department or the district's relationship with the company and other vendors with FNS for everything from advertising, cafeteria furniture, and utensils, etc.

One blogger who actually started the scrutiny into BISD's relationship with Valco was none other than local gadfly and Head Cheez Erasmo Castro. Castro formally requested specific details of BISD's purchases with the company and the district did what every self-respecting bureaucracy dos when it doesn't want to produce the information it is asked.

They say they need a Texas Attorney General's opinion on  whether the information is exempt from public scrutiny. That little maneuver usually takes from two to three months, giving the BISD time to let things cool off a bit and discourage further inquiries.

Now, with the La Joya ISD probe uncovering possible pressure from Valco on other school districts in  Region 1, it is clear that the investigation into the company throughout the region's area has not concluded.