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Q&A
Commissioners and panelists discuss the effectiveness and challenges of the PASSPort contracting system
0:42:20
·
3 min
Commissioner Sharon Greenberger asks the panelists about the impact of the PASSPort contracting system, given the initial promises surrounding it. Panelists Michelle Jackson, Lauren Siciliano, and Frederick Shack agree that the transition to PASSPort exacerbated existing backlogs rather than the system itself being the sole problem. They identify key issues including the inability to process multiple contract actions concurrently (which halts payments), lack of transparency on where items are stuck, and agency staff needing more training, suggesting fixes like enabling concurrent actions and better visibility.
- The transition to PASSPort, occurring during a backlog, significantly worsened delays.
- A major flaw is that processing one action (like an amendment) often stops payments or prevents other actions (like invoicing) on the same contract.
- Lack of transparency makes it hard for providers to track where their contracts/invoices are held up.
- Allowing concurrent processing of different contract actions is a key suggested improvement.
Sharon Greenberger
0:42:20
Yes.
0:42:20
Thank you so much.
0:42:21
I feel your collective pain, and I appreciate your testimony.
0:42:25
I do would like to push you a little bit on the impact of passport because there was a lot
Julie Won
0:42:29
of promise surrounding what would happen.
0:42:31
And I
Sharon Greenberger
0:42:31
would like to understand from your collective perspective, why didn't why didn't the things that were promised happened?
0:42:38
So what are some of the what's the impact of passport?
0:42:40
And if you had to choose sort of one thing that you would make sure got fixed tomorrow, if you were given passport, what's the one thing that you would each do?
Michelle Jackson
0:42:53
I would say the provider's chance to that last part because they're the ones who have to live with passport on a daily basis.
0:43:00
We don't have a contract with the city.
0:43:01
So I will say, I think Passport, when I get back to before HSS Accelerator, obviously, do not wanna go back to that system.
0:43:09
I think Passport exacerbated the the transition into Passport is really what exacerbated the problems, not the system itself, and the fact that it came.
0:43:17
HTS Accelerator was decommissioned.
0:43:19
Everyone had to move over into Passport, and it happened during probably the worst time of the year and when there was already a backlog of contract actions.
0:43:27
So Passport itself is not the problem.
0:43:30
I'm not saying it shouldn't be improved.
0:43:32
We should you know, it's better than where we were.
0:43:34
I don't think it's as good as an HSS accelerator, but it's also a much bigger system.
0:43:38
So I would say I think it's just the transition exacerbated issues.
0:43:42
And now that there's such a big backlog, the providers can, you know, do multiple actions at once.
0:43:47
And so there's only so much that a a technical system can, you know, take on at one time.
0:43:52
And so when providers are waiting on indirect from f y twenty one, which is indirect cost rates, and then they're waiting on three amendments, they still have a contract registration pending.
0:44:00
So I think that's really the the issue with Passport.
0:44:04
And at the end of the day, Passport has to be moved forward by people in chairs hitting buttons.
0:44:10
And so that's where, you know, a system still is only as good as the management behind it and who's in charge of you know, we see we've seen with Accelerator and other systems, someone will still email someone outside of the passport system and say, oh, will you, you know, email me that document over here?
0:44:26
And so if you have something like the mayor's office of contract services having authority over invoicing and payment, they can plug that more streamlined into Passport, and there's an accountability of, you know, you have to do what we say.
0:44:37
And so and I would say, can't answer that last part is making sure the providers can submit all their contract connections and not waiting until things are approved would be one of the many things that I think could improve passport.
Lauren Siciliano
0:44:50
Yep.
0:44:51
In terms of an improvement to passport, that's what I would echo as well.
0:44:54
It it it forces nonprofits to make really unfair choices.
0:44:59
The fact that you can do one thing at a time in the system forces you to make really unfair choices.
0:45:04
Do you pursue the additional advance, or do you wait to hope that your budget will be able to proceed and submit the invoice, which is for an example.
0:45:12
And I do think that my experience with passport transition has been that I I think it just created a lot of confusion.
0:45:19
And, you know, folks knew how to do it in accelerator.
0:45:24
And then when that transition happened, it added the uncertainty to the backlog that already exist existed.
0:45:29
And as issues came up, I think a lot of the agencies weren't clear on how to get those those issues resolved.
Frederick Shack
0:45:40
I would agree.
0:45:41
No.
0:45:41
I I think that part of the challenge is the fact that as you rolled out the system, the agency staff weren't that familiar with it, and we're trying to figure it out as we were.
0:45:49
The fact that you can only do one thing at a time and if there's an activity going on, it stops all your payment.
0:45:55
And the lack of transparency.
0:45:56
You know, it'd be great to be able to go into the system and see exactly where the item is, not to let you know what phone call to make in order to get it moving forward.
0:46:05
So that lack of visibility also is somewhat of a challenge.
0:46:09
Sometimes that's due to the fact people aren't using it on the agency head the way it's designed to be used.