Puerto Rico's Secretary of the Governor, Norma Burgos, said she has had to personally summon the Office of Management and Budget (OGP) and the Department of the Treasury (Hacienda) to move forward governor's projects that had been delayed due to lack of cooperation between the two agencies. Burgos said she entered a meeting, called both parties, closed the doors, and told them no one would leave until issues were resolved, a tactic she said worked.
The issue centers on complaints related to the government's new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) financial system, which requires coordination between OGP and Hacienda to process timely payments to government suppliers and contractors. Burgos said both agencies must now work together daily and aggressively, and that the heads of both agencies have assigned additional staff at her request.
She described herself as now acting as the 'project manager' for the effort, calling it a serious ongoing problem that requires more time to improve implementation, with weekly follow-up to track progress.