DPHHS business and financial services asks for procurement staff as contracts, indirect costs and compliance demands rise

The Department of Public Health and Human Services told an appropriations subcommittee that contracting volume, changing cybersecurity insurance requirements and complex federal-cost-allocation rules have increased workload in its Business and Financial Services Division (BFSD) and prompted a request to convert two modified procurement positions to permanent status.

Corinne Kyler, BFSD division administrator, said the division oversees central accounting, procurement, accounts payable/receivable, facility billing and the department’s cost-allocation activities. BFSD is budgeted at 56 position-base (PB) units with a base budget the department described as approximately $14.3 million and a requested fiscal-year 2026 amount of roughly $15.1 million.

Kyler told the committee BFSD executed close to 1,500 contracts and managed roughly 4,000 active contracts and amendments in fiscal 2024. She said the division processed more than 100,000 vouchers for business payments in 2024 and collected about $285 million through accounts-receivable work during the year.

The department provided a breakdown of contracting and subgrant spending: in 2024, contracted services billed as in-state totaled about $38 million (largely federal funds) while out-of-state contracted services…