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Lawmakers press DRT and DOA on procurement, staffing and GFMIS integration after outage
Summary
Committee urged DRT and DOA to accelerate GFMIS integration, strengthen procurement monitoring and create an implementation team to avoid future vendor holdouts; DOA said revenue-module unification could be accomplished by year-end with available funding for this fiscal year.
During an extended March 30 oversight hearing, legislators urged the Department of Revenue and Taxation to strengthen procurement oversight, centralize contract monitoring and accelerate integration with the governments Financial Management Information System (GFMIS).
Procurement and budget constraints: Management analyst Mikuel Spiritu and Director Marie Lzama described a procurement timeline that allowed a maintenance arrangement to lapse at the end of the fiscal year while vendor renewal proposals arrived with significantly higher pricing. DRT said it used purchase orders historically to extend services and was advised by legal to pursue a competitive process before executing a new maintenance contract; DOA emphasized the importance of routing requisitions early to create pre-incumbrances so funding is reserved.
DOA and systems integration: Department of Administration representatives told the committee they have begun discussions with DRT to unify revenue accounting into the GFMIS platform and that existing FMIS contract funds should cover integration work through the end of the fiscal year. DOA indicated the goal is to complete revenue-module integration by year-end to eliminate manual double-entry and speed transaction receipts.
Staffing and workforce pipeline: DRT acknowledged long-standing recruitment and retention challenges in technical roles and said it is using internships with the University of Guam and Guam Community College, limited-term appointments and targeted reclassification to fill critical positions. Senators urged immediate reallocation of interagency staff where appropriate and more active use of training and retention incentives.
Next steps and oversight: Committee members demanded a scope-of-work and timeline for a DRT modernization program office, a public reconciliation of ARP/CARES expenditures related to system upgrades and a clear procurement path for a short-term maintenance contract that preserves system continuity without violating procurement law.
The hearing record remains open for DOA and DRT to deliver a procurement timeline, the vendors pricing proposals and a plan for a program-management office to lead modernization.
