Gov. Timothy M. Kaine yesterday expressed concern about the level of information-technology customer service provided to state agencies, in a letter to several state lawmakers.
Kaine was responding to a letter that the chairmen of the legislature's two money committees and the chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission sent this week. The lawmakers said they cannot support any modifications to the state's $2.3 billion, 10-year contract with Northrop Grumman for IT services until a pending study is complete.
Kaine said he has no role in contract negotiations and cited the "unusual oversight structure" in which an independent panel -- the Information Technology Investment Board -- was created to oversee the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.
He reiterated that he believes the IT agency that serves executive agencies should report to the governor.
"No volunteer board, regardless of its collective talent . . . can offer the level of oversight that an elected executive with a full professional staff can provide," he wrote.
Kaine also said he demands "high performance" from agency heads but that their performance is based on a solid technology program. While customer-service problems are not unexpected with such a large project, he wrote, issues are addressed "less efficiently and effectively" when the agency delivering IT services is outside executive supervision.
He said one of his hopes is that the JLARC study may lead to an improved governance model.
Kaine encouraged leaders of the committees to arrange a meeting with him as soon as possible to discuss issues related to VITA.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment