Critical service for adults with disabilities faces contract woes

 Earlier this year when working mom Barbara Mafnas found out about GovGuam’s Community Habilitation program that takes care of adults with significant disabilities, she knew she could leave her son in good hands during the day. 

“Chris is 28 years old. He has an intellectual disability, which means he can’t make decisions on his own for many things. He operates at a third to fifth grade level. He also has a seizure disorder and seizures come and go whenever so we have to be available to be able to help him through that. He also has an immune deficiency,” said Mafnas. 

Mafnas is an Assistant Professor at the Guam Community College and works at Sagua Mañagu, a women’s health clinic. 

Her husband is a JROTC teacher at John F. Kennedy High School. 

“So what that means for us is if we don’t have services, somebody has to stay home with him or he comes in tow with us to places he really shouldn’t be,” Mafnas added. 

But on Thursday morning, she was given a letter from Catholic Social Services that they had no choice but to suspend this critical service by next Monday.  

DISID’s contract with css had expired on Sept. 30 and an extension to continue services was not approved by the Attorney General’s Office. 

“So my first thought was to go into crisis mode and how do we fix this? Because if I don’t have anywhere for him to go, how am I going to go to work,” she said. “I’d like to talk to the Attorney General and know why that wasn’t signed.”

AG Doug Moylan told KUAM that DISID sent an unsigned draft contract for guidance about two weeks before it expired, and that there were errors on an RFP that needed correction. 

But DISID acting Director Audrey Topasna said the renewal contract didn’t require signatures yet and an electronic copy for the extension was sent in August. 

“We’ve been working with the AG’s office trying to get updates. What had happened was we were just informed this week that because the contract had expired, we were unable to proceed,” said Topasna. 

The AG's Office spent Thursday expediting the contract to continue services without disruption.

“We did receive an updated guidance from the Attorney General's Office, and it does provide a pathway to safeguard the critical services we provide. We do appreciate that the AG'S Office has prioritized our contract,” Topasna added. 

And with minor edits quickly corrected, Topasna said a six month extension looks likely with the acting Governor's signature.