AME Bypass the First Approver Group

Hi Experts,

We integrated the EBS Workflow with AME approval engine in R12.1.3. It used to work fine but now when the workflow AME is trying to get approvers, it goes directly to approver groups #2(we have approver group1, 2, in that order in serial). If we use the query in Approver Group #1 definition against database directly, it does return the right approver id. I don't know why the AME does not pick the approver in group #1. We used this code to get approvers:

ame_api2.getNextApprovers4( applicationIdIn=>...)

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks.