On January 24, the Brownsville Independent School District filed its objection with the Texas Attorney General to our request for information on payments made to the Brownsville-based printing company Grafik Spot over the past five years.
We filed the request after hearing continuing rumors that it was at the heart of an investigation by federal agencies overseeing the use of funds by Food and Nutrition Services departments by local school districts.The district's legal counsel said they were taking exception to our information request because those purchases were part of an ongoing investigation (click on graphic at right to enlarge).
But, seemingly contradicting this, general counsel Baltazar Salazar told board trustees during an open meeting that the company was a "vendor in good standing" and approved the district awarding it a contract for printing supplies in 2018.
We had heard, for example, of a purchase made July 14, 2015 that was approved by the BISD board February 3, 2015 of 7,000 red and blue insulated bags with the FNS logo totaling $252,170 that grew moldy in BISD warehouses and had to be thrown away. We have confirmed that with BISD sources.
And these same sources told us of unusually large orders of food tray liners and chicken nugget boxes that were still in boxes after having been delivered to the BISD Palo Alto Service Center by Grafik Spot costing $100,000s three years after their purchase.
USDA investigators were scheduled to meet with department director Silverio Capsitran the morning after he was found with a bullet in his head sitting in his pickup truck in the parking lot of his apartment.
"(We were) scheduled to meet with Mr. Capistran the morning after," said one. "It was the school district who called (us) at 6:30 a.m. to let (us) know what happened."
"The FBI and Texas Rangers eventually took over the whole investigation," they confirmed. "(We) would assume one of them probably has (Capistran's) phone."
Relatives say that the phone contained detailed specifics about the dealings Capistran had within the department and that he kept a ledger of the outside business he was conducting in association with "investors" into the bad barbacoa meat and the cafeteria-oriented purchases with vendors.
Agents looking into the BISD's district's relationship with Valco ( Agrifact Capital, we have now learned, was the assignee for Valco Foods) also uncovered other irregularities in FNS purchases from other vendors, including Brownsville's Grafik Spot.
"(Our) role in the investigation (the USDA's) was solely on the meat product from Valco," said the source. "As the investigation went on (we) quickly realized there was a lot more going on than just meat from Mexico. The meat product was the least of their worries. The evidence was turned over to the FBI."
The district's appeal to the Texas Attorney General's Office said it was taking exception to El Rrun-Rrun's request because the information "Is part of a multi-agency investigation by several law-enforcement offices including the Brownsville Independent School District. The law-enforcement agencies are investigating potential criminal activity."
It cites Texas Government Code Section 552.105 which deals with "Law Enforcement, Corrections and Prosecutorial Information."
"As stated previously, the District's Police Force along with other State and Federal law enforcement agencies are investigating suspected criminal activity. The requested information is part of the criminal investigation. At this time, the investigation remains active by the BISD Police Department and the various law enforcement agencies.
The information made the subject of this request is part of the investigation and we believe are privileged and excepted from disclosure under the section of the Act."
Well, as we awaited the opinion of the Texas AG, we have been able to acquire a partial list of some of the purchases made to the company. They are eye-opening amounts.We can only vouch for the purchases for which we have been able to acquire Purchase Order numbers and they are as follow (click on graphic at right to enlarge):
Purchase Order # P248030: Issued July 7, 2015, Food Tray Liners: $319,950
Purchase Order# P248325: Issued July 13, 2015, Insulated Bags: $252,170
Purchase Order# P250037: Issued August 10, 2015, Chicken Nugget Boxes: $366,600
Purchase Order# P251750: Issued Sept. 1, 2015, Chinese Take-Out Boxes: $75,000
Purchase Order # P254304: Issued Sept. 29, 2015, Paper Cups: $147,400
Purchase Order# P257049: Issued October 28,2015, Round "I Believe in BISD" stickers: $101,000
Within the space of four months (July to October 2015), the BISD's FNS under Capistran did $1,2562,120 in business with the company. In fact,as we pointed out above, the department purchased so much that some things (like the insulated bags) grew moldy and had to be thrown away, a $252,170 loss to BISD taxpayers.
And Salazar and the BISD administration insist on saying that nothing is wrong and won't release the information to the public, further clouding the issue by saying that it's because of a criminal investigation and at the same time saying Grafik Spot is a vendor in good standing?
Someone's lying.
14 comments:
Oh well, Mexicans will be Mexicans and take care of their compas.
No one cares, juanito. Not even you, I bet.
BISD proves daily to be the most corrupt and most wasteful agency in the Valley. The waste, fraud and corruption in BISD needs to be investigated. Why were all these materials wasted in the warehouse? Who ordered them? Who failed to manage the materials in the warehouse? Have any of the Trustees visited the warehouse in the last three years? Has there not been an audit of BISD expenditures in the last three years? Mr. Salazar the attorney will always defend his client....that is why he gets the big bucks. Lawyers are hired to allow clients to "kick all the cans down the road"/to delay...figuring all will be forgotten. Unfortunately, too many teachers, administrators and staff are in fear of their jobs and have no moral courage to blow the whistle on fraud, waste and abuse. Unfortunately, the waste described here could have been spend on classroom supplies and teacher initiated programs.
Here we see how BISD wastes tax dollars. Yet nothing is ever done to make corrections or punish those who waste our tax dollars.
Hope these fkers go down FBI do your dam job you all focus too much up the valley. We taxpayers haven't seen anyone get busted in brownsville in a loooong time the coruption is all over starting with BISD and the CITY lets go boys and girls dont let TRUMP keep you all down!!
fuck to much bull shit in bisd
Do your fucking job FBI !!
What the hell does Trump have to do with this? This corruption has been going on long before he was on the scene. That was an extremely ignorant remark typical of this third world setting of ignoramuses.
If such is true, why do Minerva and Sylvia not report it to TEA and call in the FBI? They are such moral characters and should not put up with this, IF, it is true. If the FBI is investigating, what is the hold-up? I don't understand why everyone knows what is or went on, but nobody does anything about it to solve it.
And how much is Balty being paid to get BISD "out of trouble?" He is the core root of all troubles at BISD with the money pockets. He covers up for whomever fills those pockets.
I am wondering, wouldn't the plural of ingnoramus be ingnorami?
They are all lying Juan don't fall for their bullshit! They are a bunch of thieves and belong in prison!
All these corupt aholes will burn in HELL
Okay fellas! Here is the scoop! Whoever is feeding you all this crap is just that, crap. The bags did not get moldy in the warehouse. They are used for breakfast in the classroom and as they wear out they are replaced. The moldy ones were a result of maintenance turning off the HVAC system at Bestiero-Aiken a couple of years ago and they got moldy over the summer and an attempt was made to try to save them using bleach and water. Grafik
Spot did not steal from FNS! Everything that was paid for was delivered! Where there may be a problem is that they may have been kicking something back to Capistran? What we do know is that the FNS accounting clerk is in jail and over $300,000 is missing! What we do know is that Valco came and picked up over $400,000 of perfectly good meat and didn't reimburse FNS for that meat. That meat was processed in Mexico and didn't meet the made in USA, USDA requirements. What we don't know is if the FBI has found a trail of money between Grafik Spot and Capistran? So until they do, Gafik Spot is a vendor in good standing with BISD! Also, what you don't know and could be had with a correctly written FOIA request is that Capistran originally began a program to reduce trash and bought reusable plastic trays for most of the cafeterias. This eliminated the use of the foam trays that were causing tons of trash! With the new trays came the need for the liners, paper containers to contain the food portions, etc. etc. Here is where the opportunity may have presented itself for a kick back opportunity with vendors? Or maybe he didn't do anything wrong and we won't know the fine details until the investigation is over? Maybe? I really want to know who killed Dr. Escobedo? When are we going to be told about that investigation?
Post a Comment