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EDITORIAL: Investigate State's Computer Snafus

Posted on: Saturday, 11 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By The Wisconsin State Journal

Feb. 11--Before Wisconsin spent $35.6 million to upgrade the Department of Motor Vehicles' computerized registration and titling system, it took motorists up to four weeks to get license plates and vehicle titles.

Now, after the costly upgrade, the wait time is -- 12 weeks.

If you're seeing red over spending $35.6 million of taxpayers' money on a project that made things worse, you ain't seen nuthin' yet.

All over state government at the Department of Revenue, UW, Department of Corrections and Elections Board efforts to install new computerized systems and upgrade existing ones have gone awry at taxpayers' expense.

Thankfully, lawmakers are paying attention. Leaders of the Legislature's Joint Audit Committee, Sen. Carol Roessler, R-Oshkosh, and Rep. Suzanne Jeskewitz, R-Menomonee Falls, along with Sen. Robert Cowles, R-Green Bay, plan to request an audit to find out what's going wrong.

Their effort deserves all lawmakers' support.

Anyone who has come in contact with computers learns to cringe at words like "upgrade" and "new installation." Something always goes wrong. The difference in the state's situation is that the projects involve many millions of dollars, and things are going wrong repeatedly in ways that cost residents, businesses and other government units time and money.

We need to know who is screwing up and why. Then we need to make corrections so that it stops happening. A legislative review should ask:

-- Is there a common theme to the snafus?

-- Has the state been contracting with incompetent businesses to do the computer projects?

-- Were the state's project goals realistic?

-- Did the state fail to provide the contractors with the support and resources they need or were the state's preparations for computer changes inadequate?

-- Does the state have the expertise to direct and oversee the contractors?

-- Were the state's contracts for the work faulty?

Currently, it is difficult to pinpoint a villain. The state agencies involved are as frustrated as anyone and are forthrightly apologizing. In at least one case the contractor is attempting to fix the problems for free.

But that does not excuse the delays and errors. Take the Revenue Department's system for calculating the share of sales and use tax collections owed to counties and special districts. The 4-year-old, $37-million system still can't get its job right. It underpaid 33 counties a total of $1.8 million and overpaid 25 counties and two professional sports districts by $2.8 million.

Those kinds of mistakes are simply intolerable. Lawmakers should proceed full speed ahead with an investigation.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Wisconsin State Journal

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Wisconsin State Journal

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