About 100 GovGuam land lines disconnected

by Jolene Toves

Guam - From land lines to Internet access, GovGuam's procurement process for its telecommunications services contract has been up at stake. An invitation for bid was issued in 2011 with 13 initial bid forms covering services for telephones, Internet, wireless phones, television, data, and the government wide area network in various government agencies.

Parts of the bid were awarded to GTA TeleGuam while others were given to PDA, resulting in protests by both competitors. The protest has since made its way to the Superior Court of Guam where appeals to both the Office of the Public Auditor's and General Services Agency's decision is now being heard.

In Judge Anita Sukola's courtroom GTA filed a request for a temporary restraining order barring GSA and PDS from taking action on purchase orders previously issued during a fourteen-day stay. Judge Sukola further ordered the disconnection of current services under the bid.

In keeping with the order at 2pm this afternoon Pacific Data Systems disconnected about one hundred GovGuam land lines that were under the 20 purchase orders issued by GSA to PDS.  The services will remain disconnected until further order of the court.