By Peter J. Santos for Kandit News & Views
For several years I have publicly stated that the biggest problem paralyzing the government of Guam is the problems faced with our outdated procurement system and poor financial management. I recently attended the Procurement Summit on June 12, 2025 jointly spearheaded by the Guam Chamber of Commerce, the Guam Contractors Association, and the Guam Travel & Tourism Association. Present were the Governor of Guam Lourdes Leon Guerrero, the Speaker of the Guam Legislature Frank Blas Jr., and Senator Sabina Perez who has been pushing updates to the procurement laws. The speaker and the governor expressed their intent to modernize Guam’s procurement laws and launch a procurement reform working group.
The first panel at the summit consisted of heads of autonomous agencies who have been rather successful in the procurement realm, unlike the 60 other line agencies who seem to be paralyzed when it comes to procurement. So what’s the difference? The autonomous agencies have strong teams of legal advisors and procurement professionals that are intimately knowledgeable and familiar with what they need to meet their agencies’ mission. The line agencies rely on GSA for procurement support and are unable to get legal services from the Attorney General’s Office. In short, they are set up for failure.
One of the sentiments that was repeated often at the Procurement Summit is that the personnel involved in procurement need to have training. In fact, Public Auditor B.J. Cruz reminded everyone that by law, which he had previously passed when he was a senator, anyone involved in procurement needs to have completed the four levels of procurement training, depending on their roles, but no one should be involved in any procurement if they have not completed any training.
More recently, the Guam Legislature has been lamenting and expressing frustration at the poor financial management in several GovGuam agencies that leads to the inability for them to budget properly and shows an almost total lack of accountability.
As daunting as this may seem, procurement and financial management is not rocket science. I held many positions in the military. I was a training officer, a certified ethics advisor and trainer, a certifying officer, and Chief of Administrative Law advising, assisting, and reviewing on procurement, financial management, contract issues, employment law, investigations, and many other areas.
What GovGuam line agencies need to succeed is the proper legal support, which is non-existent under the current attorney general. Right now, the Attorney General’s Office is still doing the required legal reviews, albeit inefficiently, but what is really needed is what I call “Preventative Law.”
Preventative Law is training, advising, monitoring, and reviewing the legal needs of the customer so that they are set up for success. There are systems with built-in checks that need to be implemented and closely monitored and adjusted accordingly. I have several concepts and ideas in mind that I will implement when I am the next attorney general. It will be one of my top priorities to fix Guam’s procurement and financial management for my customers, the government of Guam and ultimately the people of Guam who all rely on and expect prompt efficient service from their government. It’s a matter of priorities. My priority will be providing service, not abandoning my duties. My priority will be preventing fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, not meritless witch hunts on political adversaries. I will finally provide competent leadership. If Guam truly wants to move forward instead of backwards, we must stop rewarding corrupt incompetence. God bless the people of Guam. Biba Guam!!!
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Peter J. Santos is a resident of Yigo, formerly Agat. He is a former Police Officer, Army JAG, Military Magistrate, Legal Studies Adjunct Instructor, 4-time combat veteran, local prosecutor and currently a defense attorney.
