Legislative committee hears bill to give Mayor's Council executive director procurement authority up to $500,000

The Committee on Finance and Government Operations of the 38th Guam Legislature held a public hearing June 25 on Bill 1-46-38 COR, which would add a new section to Chapter 5, Title 5, Guam Code Annotated to grant the executive director of the Mayor's Council of Guam limited procurement authority for goods and services not to exceed $500,000.

The measure's supporters say the change would speed delivery of routine supplies and services across Guam's 19 municipalities by reducing how often the General Services Agency must process small but numerous transactions. Joy Jean Arceo, executive director of the Mayor's Council of Guam, testified that the council processed 427 purchase orders in the last six months "which equal to $2,200,000," and urged a statutory requirement that the executive director remain certified to exercise any delegated authority.

Arceo said the bill "is not about expanding individual power. It's about building the operational structure needed to meet the evolving demands of the village leadership," and told the committee she and her team include staff certified under Guam procurement law who already conduct quarterly procurement training for village-level staff. She recommended language that would cause procurement authority to automatically revert to the chief procurement officer if the executive director does not maintain active procurement certification.

Representatives from the General Services Agency (GSA) acknowledged delays caused by agency workload and recommended additional controls. Adriana Quirigua, acting chief procurement officer at GSA, testified that the Mayor's Council currently may procure supplies or services under its enabling law for amounts below $15,000 but that expanding authority without safeguards ‘‘presents significant risk including non compliance with procurement regulations, exposure to audit findings, and potential misuse of public funds.’’ Quirigua urged inclusion of independent review and audit by the Department of Administration's internal audit office as part of any new statutory authority.

Mayors who testified described operational examples in which quicker procurement was needed for emergency and daily needs. Mayor Anthony Chargeloff said giving procurement authority to the Mayor's Council "relieves GSA of a potential workload" and cited emergency responses and infrastructure repairs as cases that benefited from faster local action. Mayor Robert Hoffman described adjusting the council's executive-director job requirements to prioritize procurement and emergency-management experience.

Committee members questioned staffing and oversight. Arceo told senators the Mayor's Council procurement unit currently includes three staff with varying module certifications and that remaining staff have been enrolled in training; she said each procurement module costs about $208. GSA procurement counsel Graham Botha and acting CPO Quirigua said delegation of procurement authority already occurs on a fiscal-year basis but emphasized that delegations can be rescinded if audits or oversight reveal noncompliance. GSA also reported general staffing shortages at the agency: the acting CPO said GSA currently has five buyers and estimated a need for about 10 to meet workload demands.

No formal vote occurred at the hearing. Senators discussed possible amendments suggested in testimony, including requiring the executive director to maintain active procurement certification and statutory language making procurement activity subject to independent DOA internal audit review. The committee will accept written testimony for seven calendar days following the hearing and plans a markup before sending any recommendation to the full legislature.