Almost a year after the date on which the central government expected to have completed the integration of its financial, human resources and contracting platforms to facilitate procedures such as recruitment, personnel transactions and purchases, the implementation of the first of the five “modules” that will make up the system has not yet been completed, while the administration of Jenniffer González and the Fiscal Oversight Board (FOMB) evaluate how to optimize the project.

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In separate interviews, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Executive Director Orlando Rivera Berríos and FOMB Deputy Executive Director Arnaldo Cruz acknowledged the complications they have faced in the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and estimated that the full integration of the platforms will take additional “years”.

The ERP, which the former OMB director, Juan Carlos Blanco, projected to be completed by the summer of 2024, will standardize and integrate the platforms used by Executive Branch agencies for financial, budgetary, personnel, contracting and purchasing management, that is, all transactions involving public funds.

Under Pedro Pierluisi’s administration, the ERP was seen as one of the ways to streamline recruitment procedures and thereby reduce government vacancies. In July 2023, the OMB reported that there were 10,290 vacancies in a group of 94 public agencies and corporations, or about 10% of the budgeted workforce. Since then, the figure has barely changed, standing, as of last Wednesday, March 12, at an “approximate” 10,329, according to Rivera Berríos.

In its implementation phase alone, the government has signed contracts with the firm Deloitte Consulting amounting to $73.1 million. At press time, neither the Treasury Department -the contracting party- nor the FOMB had specified the total expenditure within that amount, nor the expenditure for the purchase of licenses for the use of the ERP platform, acquired from Oracle.

Rivera Berríos, who took the position in January as one of González’s first appointments, described the human resources module as the most “complex” and “important” of the five that make up the ERP. At present, one of the topics under discussion with the FOMB is precisely how to order the implementation of the modules, based on logistical and prioritization criteria.

On Thursday, the governor signed an executive order to create a “task force” of fiscal agency heads, whose purposes included “promoting efficiency in the administration of public resources through the integration of interagency economic data and analysis,” as well as “formulating strategies” to accelerate the exit of the FOMB.

“We are talking about the fact that the Education or Health Departments have a completely separate system, which is the most complex module there is. It is not only to have a payroll module to register expenses, but to include the recruitment process, which is part of the initiatives to be more agile in recruitment,” said Rivera Berríos.

“Because of its complexity, the decision was to address it last, (but) we are really evaluating this entire process, because, although it is complex, the reality is that it is the most important. If we fail to implement that module, we would be in the middle of the project, in terms of transparency. Payroll spending is the largest in the Puerto Rico government, so speeding up this implementation is the priority right now for the administration,” said the OMB chief.

On the other side of the coin, Rivera Berríos described the procurement module as the easiest, due in part to the centralization of these procedures in the General Services Administration (GSA).

“It can be implemented in an initial phase (...) GSA has a system, which the idea is to integrate it with the ERP,” he stressed.

Cruz, of the FOMB, pointed out that the delay is partly due to the “fragmentation” and “obsolescence” of the platforms used by the dozens of Executive Branch agencies.

“It does not mean that, because it is difficult, it cannot be implemented. There is no doubt that this project should have been implemented long ago, it should not be something we are talking about today. Part of the problem is that, in order to implement a system like this, any government that is doing it has to establish that it is a priority project, because it involves all agencies, all processes. It is not merely a matter of accounting,” said the FOMB executive, stressing that this level of urgency has to be observed beyond the agency heads, percolating throughout the entire workforce.

According to Cruz, the FOMB is providing space for the new administration to define the route it wishes to follow to advance the development of the ERP in a “realistic” manner, and he said he is optimistic that the government, in effect, considers its implementation a priority, which is one of the components of the public service reform mandated by the central government’s certified fiscal plan.

“We are confident that we will soon be able to establish this work path towards the future and that we will be working in collaboration for the next few years for this project to be implemented. Everywhere, not only in Puerto Rico, this is not a project of months, it is a project of years. If you look at it merely as a technology project, that’s part of the problem. It’s a project that changes the way you do your human resources, accounting and purchasing processes,” Cruz said.

As recently as Friday, the FOMB approved the extension of Deloitte’s contract - which originally expired in December 2024 - as ERP “implementer” until April 30, an amendment that did not involve an adjustment to the amount of the agreement. Acknowledging, however, that work on the system will take years, Rivera Berríos said the amendments should give way to additional negotiations that would provide greater “teeth” to the contract.

“The contract is established to be by deliverables, by tasks: you deliver the module and then the cost is paid. Although at one time the contract was made for four years, with a mentality that it could be implemented in its entirety, there have been gaps that, the (end of) effective (end) date arrived (without being completed). However, the cost is still not in full because there are deliverables that have not yet been completed,” said Rivera Berríos.

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Executive Order 2025-011

By: Jenniffer González

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This content was translated from Spanish to English using artificial intelligence and was reviewed by an editor before being published.