State of Hawaii Enterprise Financial System

Over the past two fiscal years (i.e., July 2021 to June 2023), an assessment of the State’s current financial accounting system was conducted by Spire Hawaii, an accounting and advisory services firm. During this time, it was noted that the State processed a total of 1.7 million transactions valued at more than $140 billion.

The Spire consultants also noted other findings in their assessment:

• 67% of State departments require complex systems to manage their operations as well as provide the necessary data to make decisions. These complexities are not captured in current policies, procedures, and manuals.
• 89% of departments use secondary systems to meet their needs. Most departments use secondary systems to accommodate for FAMIS’ inability to manage the information they need.

If such an integral part of how the State conducts business were to fail, government operations and services would halt. In short, implementing a new financial accounting system that can effectively meet the State’s business requirements is a necessity, not a luxury we can afford to postpone any longer.

Recently, the State Legislature has allocated $31 million in partial funding to support the EFS Project and the team’s efforts to implement a new financial accounting system. This critical funding is not just an investment in the project’s mission to improve the State’s business operations; it is a vital step towards modernization and enhancing the State’s ability to better serve its constituents.

On behalf of the EFS Project team, we extend our heartfelt thanks to our State Legislators for their unwavering support as we proceed into the next phases of the project. For without the trust of our legislators, we would not have the essential resources to move forward in making the EFS Project a reality for thousands of public servants throughout the Aloha State.

For more information on the EFS Project, please visit efs.hawaii.gov for ongoing updates.