Deal gets done to replace DOA's outdated financial management system

It was an "emergency procurement" that's taken more than a year and a half to get done. But the Department of Administration finally has a deal to replace the government's antiquated primary financial management system, with a new state-of-the-art one.

The emergency purchase of what DOA described as a critically needed new financial management system has dragged on for more than 18 months. The governor issued an executive order back in mid-2020 authorizing the use of American Rescue Plan funds for the purchase DOA director Ed Birn says its a relief to finally get it done.

"I've learned that there are different kinds of emergencies," Birn said. "It is an emergency, but the emergency allowed us several things. It allowed us to move the whole thing along quicker than it might've done and I fear that had it not been an emergency or designated an emergency the whole process mightve have actually taken a lot longer."

The total cost for the system is $31 million, and it will be built in five stages. It's expected to greatly enhance the government's financial management and reporting processes. For one, it will use cloud computing technology - an online platform that's now the gold standard, which the legacy system does not.

"The current system is not - and I'm speaking with like 45 years worth of experience in accounting - is not a fully-rounded accounting system. its a system that records numbers but it doesn't. I can't press a button and get a set of financial statements, and that's the end goal," Birn said.

"We've been required over the last few years to produce more and more information. And that's fair enough. There's much more money going through the system, and more information needs to be reported. But we've just outgrown the current system."

Birn says the off-island vendor is expected on Guam next month to begin planning for the build-out, noting, "The plan we got at the moment is we will just stop the old system and go with the new system on the date where we feel comfortable, but the goal is to have this operational in december of this year."