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5/23/2010
Rep. Huebsch: Bungled IT Projects Cost Taxpayers
The Doyle Administration has finally found a solution to the cost overruns that have plagued state IT projects for years: stop reporting them. In 2005, state officials estimated that consolidating state computer servers would cost taxpayers $12.8 million. They were off by nearly $100 million.
According to the Department of Administration (DOA), the project price tag will reach $110 million by the end of June. After that, state workers will not track the costs even though they expect the consolidation to continue at least through December. Once the project is finished, DOA expects the annual cost of running the new data center to be $18 million.
The server consolidation was part of Governor Doyle’s 2005 Accountability, Consolidation, and Efficiency (ACE) Initiative. In addition to consolidating servers and e-mail systems and integrating information systems, ACE was supposed to consolidate human resources functions for seven state agencies and purchasing functions for another eleven, while also identifying and selling surplus state property.
The governor promised that ACE would save taxpayers $200 million by June, 2009. Three months after that milestone date, Doyle appointees said ACE had saved $35 million. They didn’t reveal how that number was calculated or whether they accounted for the $15.2 million paid to the four contractors who set up ACE.
Republican lawmakers twice passed legislation establishing legislative oversight of ACE, but Governor Doyle used his veto pen both times. By keeping taxpayers in the dark, the governor avoided scrutiny until it was too late.
In 2008, the Doyle Administration admitted that it had scrapped the Integrated Business Information System (IBIS) that was supposed to replace existing software used by state agencies for accounting, budgeting, human resources, payroll and purchasing functions. The unexpected announcement prompted lawmakers to ask for a Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) evaluation of the ACE Initiative and specifically its IT projects.
In September, 2009, the LAB reported that the server consolidation project now pegged for more than $110 million had already cost $90.9 million - $78.1 more than originally estimated, the e-mail consolidation project had cost $13.4 million - $10.8 more than originally estimated and $9.1 million had been spent on IBIS.
By keeping the debacle under wraps as long as he did, Governor Doyle made sure that his successor will have to clean up the mess. In the case of the server consolidation, if state employees finish the project without the help of private consultants, it still costs taxpayers and it limits resources for other projects.
This week, Reps. Brett Davis (R-Oregon) and Bill Kramer (R-Waukesha) asked the governor’s IT czar for an explanation of the run-away costs and information about what lawmakers and taxpayers should expect going forward. Reps. Davis and Kramer asked for details about the work that will have to be back-burnered while state workers complete the server consolidation, the savings that will ultimately be achieved and precautions that are being taken to prevent this type of failure in the future.
I'm not optimistic about the answers. The Doyle Administration has a long history of presiding over botched IT projects and rejecting legislative oversight of its activities. In 2007, LAB reviewed a number of troubled projects unrelated to ACE. It said the problems were the result of inadequate planning, underestimating project complexity, failing to adequately define a project’s final function, unanticipated costs and delays in implementation.
At the time, state officials halted the Enhanced Automated Benefits and Legal Enterprise System (EnABLES) at the Department of Workforce Development after five years of work and $23.6 million. Only one of the six planned components had been implemented. The state also spent $28.2 million on the Department of Revenue’s Integrated Tax System and $26 million on the University of Wisconsin payroll system before abandoning both projects.
I established the Speaker’s Task Force on Information Technology Failures when this information came to light. Elected officials and IT experts from private companies across the state recommended strategies to the Administration for avoiding future failures. Unfortunately, all the evidence suggests that it’s still business as usual at DOA. The Speaker’s Task Force also recommended reviving the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology to gain additional oversight of state agency IT projects. Unfortunately, Democrats who run the state Assembly didn’t appoint members to the committee until eight months after the 2009 legislative session convened.
Recent history and Governor’s Doyle’s contempt for legislative oversight of how his administration spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars suggests little will change in the next few months. It will be up to our next governor to accept more oversight and establish safeguards for taxpayers.
Rep. Huebsch is a Republican and represents the residents of the 94th District, the Coulee Region, east of La Crosse.
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