Domenech rejects remarks by GSA director about ERP.

La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech Fernández

By THE STAR STAFF

La Fortaleza Chief of Staff Francisco Domenech Fernández denied claims by General Services Administration (GSA) head Karla Mercado Rivera regarding the implementation of the Enterprise Resource Planning fiscal tool.

Mercado Rivera had labeled as “defamatory and completely false” one of the responses Domenech submitted to the Senate as part of the extensive request for information on several topics.

“I reaffirmed the answer submitted to the Senate regarding ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] and contractor Deloitte. I stated that it has been the General Services Administration, which has tried multiple times, and in various ways, to block the ERP and to cancel the contract with Deloitte,” Domenech said in written remarks to the STAR.

In an April 22 letter to Domenech, the ASG administrator refuted the response that Domenech offered to the Senate about the government’s efforts to “get up and running” the unified financial system, or ERP system. Domenech is also executive director of the Fiscal Agency and Financial Advisory Authority (AAFAF by its initials in Spanish).

The ERP system is the technological platform that seeks to integrate and modernize the government’s financial, budgetary and administrative systems. Deloitte has led the project since 2018.

When asked by Sen. Roxanna Soto Aguilú asked about the problems the government has faced in implementing the system, Domenech responded that ASG is “the one that has shown internal opposition to continuing with it.” He also said he couldn’t confirm it but “had heard” that lobbyist Anthony Maceira’s firm “has lobbied” to cancel the contract.

Karla Mercado Rivera, director of the General Services Administration

Mercado Rivera rejected Domenech’s assertions.

“These statements are defamatory and completely false. They do not represent the ASG’s institutional actions nor the actual course of the Puerto Rico government’s interactions regarding the implementation and administration of this project,” she wrote. “The ASG’s position has never been to oppose the continuation of the ERP arbitrarily. On the contrary, our intervention has been responsible, technical, and consistent with our ministerial duty to ensure the proper functioning of public processes, sound administration, and the protection of the public interest.” 

The official added that what the ASG has repeatedly pointed out, “and duly documented, are the serious deficiencies in the implementation and administration of the project by the implementer and the individuals who were responsible for supervising and directing the project, including, among others, failures in deliverables, substandard products, work billed and paid for but not received as agreed, as well as multiple operational and functional issues incompatible with the proper execution of the project,” she said.

“Each of these allegations has been raised in the appropriate forums, with responsibility and evidence,” the administrator stated. “Our position has always been to document deficiencies, address information requests, and state what has not been received or configured on time.”

Mercado Rivera added that linking the allegations to alleged lobbying efforts by third parties, “without direct basis,” damages the public’s perception of the ASG.