Lawmaker Arberry criticizes state’s computer department

Friday, Jan. 31, 2003 | 9:29 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assembly leader Morse Arberry of Las Vegas ripped into the state Department of Information Technology on Thursday, telling the man in charge of the state's computer systems that the department was in disarray and was failing to exercise proper oversight.

Terry Savage, the department director, said Arberry didn't know what he was talking about.

"The suggestion that we're out of control is completely at variance with reality," Savage said. "It's simply not true. It's false."

But a state audit released last month noted that the department mishandled millions of dollars in public money.

The long list of financial bungling at the agency included: paying employees overtime even when they were not showing up for their jobs; overbilling some state agencies by $5.2 million for some services while underbilling by $4.6 million for others; and failing to determine whether private contractors who were paid tens of millions of dollars did what they were supposed to do within the time they were supposed to do it.

During the Senate Finance and the Assembly Ways and Means Committees' review of the department's budget on Thursday, Arberry, a Democrat who serves as chairman of the Assembly committee, told Savage, "On the surface, it appears you are running amok."

"You're looking at an odd surface," Savage replied.

Arberry complained that the Department of Information Technology was not serving the needs of state agencies.

"You are not in control of what other agencies are buying. You don't know if they really need it," Arberry said, referring to computer systems and hardware.

But Savage said his department does not have jurisdiction over some agencies. The Legislature has exempted some departments from the oversight of the information technology agency.

He said Arberry had "an interesting perception" of what is happening in the computer system of the state. Arberry said, "You have got to show us why we need you."

Savage said the "Slamming" virus that attacked computer systems around the world this month was the worst in the past 18 months. But he said the state government was unaffected.

Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, backed Savage, saying that escaping the virus attack was one reason why other agencies need the Department of Information Technology.

Savage is seeking $125,000 for a study to determine whether the state should continue to have a centralized system, if it should be decentralized or if it should be farmed out to private industry.

Arberry said there were two prior studies and questioned whether the new study would be "studying the study." Savage said those prior studies dealt with the rates charged by the state for information technology services and not the question of the structure of the system.