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Thursday, September 02, 2010
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Latest Procurement News
Posted: Monday, November 02, 2009, 10:08AM
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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TAGS
"Governance"
Union backs Pennsylvania auditor general's campaign against waste
A union representing employees in Pennsylvania who work with the software that was the subject of an audit by the state's auditor general Jack Wagner claimed that the investigation was only the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to waste in state government.Kathy Jellison, the president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 668, praised the efforts of Wagner in recommending changes in the procurement procedures that the Rendell administration used to award state information processing contracts totalling $592m to a single vendor -- Deloitte Consulting LLP.
"Auditor general Wagner's efforts have validated what our Union has been saying for years, but they only scratch the surface," said Jellison.
"In addition to the lack of transparency and the sole-source contracting that the Rendell Administration used to, in their own words, 'reward' Deloitte for questionable performance, they also ended up buying software that doesn't work and is costing the Commonwealth additional millions of lost dollars in waste, inefficiencies, and reduced productivity."
According to the Auditor General's report, Deloitte Consulting LLP received a total of $592m in funding to provide information technology for state government. Union members are the state employees who have to use these computer programs, and the union said it "has been saying for years that the software does not work".
"Many of the Deloitte programs can best be described as 'unreliable' and the rest are either unnecessary or of limited value," said Jellison.
"These software programs have had many technical problems that have cost taxpayers millions of dollars -- in addition to the wasted millions the Auditor General found in the procurement process."
"You would think that one benefit to having a single vendor might be having software programs that communicate with each other across all state departments," added Jellison.
"However, that one benefit doesn't even apply here, because Deloitte's programs do not 'talk' to each other between departments, which results in huge waste and inefficiencies."
Saying the Union shares Wagner's frustration with this Administration, Jellison said that Local 668 has made suggestions that would save the state over $1bn a year and still provide vital state services.
Procurement Tags - Governance, U.S.
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