Friday, April 24, 1998 | 10:11 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Development of new state government computer systems is plagued with millions of dollars in cost overruns, delays and poor performance, a legislative audit reveals.
Despite spending large sums of money on these information systems, the results are mixed, said the audit which examined the state Department of Information Technology.
The auditors examined eight systems developed for state agencies and found they originally were budgeted for $25.4 million but have cost $61 million so far.
"On average, the systems took twice as long to complete as anticipated, ranging from three months to more than 2 1/2 years," the audit said.
Neither are the agencies satisfied with the completed project, said the audit which was presented to the Legislative Audit Committee Thursday.
Marlene Lockard, who took over as director of the information department in 1996, said nine of the 10 recommendations made by the legislative auditors have been put in place and progress is being made to tighten up the agency.
Lockard said some of the eight sample systems reviewed by the auditors were done by private contractors, not by her agency. The audit reviewed operations from July 1993 to December 1996.
The department has now developed a rigorous review process for agencies to go through before approval is ever given for computer projects, she said.
Deputy Legislative Auditor S. Douglas Peterson said the department "has taken steps to correct things. It's a good start but much more needs to be done."
The department has a budget this year of more than $43 million.
As examples of the problems, the audit cited the system being developed for the state welfare department that was budgeted for $22.6 million and was scheduled to be completed in three years. Its costs are now at more than $56 million and it's two years behind schedule.
A system for child nutrition at the state Department of Education was estimated to cost $28,300 and ended up at $93,224, a 229 percent overrun. It took 44 months to complete -- 30 months more than expected. And when it was finished, it ended up creating errors at acost of $200,000 a month.
A portable tax audit system for the state Department of Taxation was designed to automatically track the work of its auditors. Its estimated cost was $28,118 and it would take four months to finish the project. The cost turned out to be $313,275 and the job took 35 months. The system, when finished, did not generate reports as required and did not work on all computers. In addition, when the information department tried to fix the program, files were lost and more errors were created.
The customers of the information services department are not satisfied with the services. "...state agency officials felt they were not getting the information they need, when they need it, or where they need it," said the auditors. Eight of 16 agencies interviewed expressed dissatisfaction with the department's servie.
The department, the auditors said, don't have "fundamental controls" over staff and its resources. Basic information is missing on costs, hours and dates in developing systems. There were no work performance standards for many workers and supervisors failed to give required evaluations for workers.
The audit found that overtime was not controlled. For example, one worker was paid for more than 1,000 hours of overtime in 1996. During fiscal 1996-97, the department paid $500,000 in overtime.
Employee turnover was prevalent. From 1991 to 1996, the department had four directors; five planning and programming division chiefs; and four planning and research unit chiefs.
Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, noted that computer specialists are in high demand across the country and the 1999 Legislature will have to increase the pay to attract workers.
Lockard said the audit failed to mention the 1997 Legislature gave the division more money to correct many of these deficiencies. During the audit, she said her staff pointed the auditors to many problems "which were of significant concern to us," and the agency kept the auditors informed of the improvements being made.
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