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EDITORIAL: VITA and Why You Ought to be Very MadAug 17, 2009 (The News & Advance - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- This is one of those "inside politics" stories that the average citizen usually doesn't care about and that the average reporter dreads because it's so difficult to tell properly. But it's a story the public needs to know and that the news media needs to tell: the tale of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA), defense giant Northrop Grumman and $2.3 billion in taxpayer dollars. Back in 2003, then-Gov. Mark Warner (now Virginia's junior U.S. senator) set up VITA as a governmnet agency to oversee the technology needs of all state government entities in the commonwealth. The crowning jewel of the agency's creation was a 10-year, $2.3 billion outsourcing contract with Northrop Grumman to carry out the actual day-to-day work managing the contract. From the start, the VITA-Northrop Grumman partnership has been fraught with problems, from the minor and barely noticeable to the major and politically sensitive. The obscure agency with the cozy relationship with a defense industry giant largely stayed off the front pages until earlier this year when agency chief Lemuel C. Stewart Jr. was summarily fired by his boss, the state's secretary of technology. Stewart, it turned out, had been raising serious concerns with his bosses about Northrop Grumman and its ability to carry out the terms of the contract. He believed strongly that the company was simply unable to do its job properly and efficiently and that the state should take steps to penalize Northrop Grumman, specifically by withholding payments and exacting other monetary punishment. Northrop Grumman, Stewart complained, was deficient in getting the state's computer systems to operate properly, was slow in responding to agency requests for services, had problems with billing accuracy, failed to meet all-around schedules and failed to provide modernization plans to state agencies. And don't think these are minor systems, minor problems that the public would never care about. The statewide computer communications system for the Virginia State Police and other law enforcement and emergency services agency is overseen by Northrop Grumman; state police advocacy groups have said it simply does not work as intended. The Department of Motor Vehicles new computer system was down or locked up more than it was running, causing havoc for DMV employees and citizens across the state. And then there was this beauty, uncovered by the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Under the contract, Virginia would pay Northrop Grumman $9,000 over five years for each corporate laptop computer. That's $150 a month rent for each laptop in the program. The contract covers 61,000 personal computers, including 13,435 laptops. As the Times-Dispatch pointed out, the most expensive laptop available at Best Buy has a price tag of less than $2,500. It was after raising concerns about these problems that the board overseeing VITA and the contract with Northrop Grumman summarily fired Stewart, questionable timing to say the least, especially because Stewart had recommended a 25-percent cut in Northrop Grumman's monthly check. And now, it emerges that one of the driving forces behind the board's action was the fear that Northrop Grumman would simply pull the plug on the state's entire network and walk away from the contract, leaving the state in the lurch. So much for trusting the people you do business with. Back in June, the Senate Finance Committee took initial steps to start a probe into the entire mess. That probe needs to get into high gear, and soon, before any more tax dollars go down this high-tech rat hole. To see more of The News & Advance, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsadvance.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The News & Advance, Lynchburg, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |