by Nick Delgado

Guam - Less than a handful of ambulances are in service, and it's been this way all week. Today there are still four on the road, while the rest evidently are in service. In terms of where the Guam Fire Department stands in billing and collecting ambulance fees, Acting Spokesperson Captain Ed Flores says the bid to privatize those functions had to be re-issued due to technicalities.

He told KUAM News, "Unfortunately, the amount of time it is going take to put out the proposal is ten days of the actual announcement, so it's not a significant hiccup it actually has to do. The issue here is the proposals were submitted with a cost proposal in it, and that was the problem."

Flores says GFD is still billing and making collections, but is trying to outsource those functions. GFD hopes to have a contract in place next month or by October. A portion of the revenues from the collection of ambulance fees is supposed to go to their maintenance and to purchase new ones.