Board approves $72.7 million contract in ‘major step’ to modernizing state’s financial systems

The Board of Public Works unanimously approved a four-year deal Wednesday with a Virginia-based consultant to oversee the modernization of the state’s financial systems.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman said hiring Guidehouse Inc. is the “first major step” in moving the system responsible for payroll, taxes and payments to contractors from an antiquated mainframe that was in place in the 1990s, when she was in high school, to a cloud-based system.

“Every Maryland taxpayer is affected by our systems,” Lierman said. “Every organization or business that has ever received a payment is affected by our systems. Every employee who receives a paycheck and every agency that is trying to send out money. I’d like to think of us as the spine of the state. You never see us, but we’re holding it all up.”

The board unanimously awarded the $72.7 million contract to McLean, Virginia-based Guidehouse. The four-year deal starts Dec. 5.

Guidehouse, a global consultant company, was tapped in June by George Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to recommend reforms for his state’s prison system. That same month, the company won an eight-year information technology contract with the FBI.

The company also has contracts with Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, Indian Health Services and Oklahoma state government.

“Several of those projects bore similarities to the project we are about to embark on, meaning that Guidehouse was managing several vendors throughout the project,” Deputy Comptroller Anrew Schaufele said Wednesday. “There was high praise for their ability to meet project deadlines and budget targets.”

Maryland’s current financial system runs on obsolete technologies. In 2023, the General Assembly passed legislation mandating a modernization of the state’s financial systems. The mandate included the comptroller’s and treasurer’s offices. That law also requires a move to a cloud-based system.

“We’re one of the last states in the nation to undertake this, but better late than never, and then we will have the newest system, and all the other states will be looking at us trying to catch up,” Lierman said.