State officials are establishing a working group to take a closer look at IT procurement issues after Governor Brown signed AB 1498 this summer which calls for a plan to migrate the authority to purchase IT goods and services, worth an estimated $5 billion annually, to the California Technology Agency.
“What we thought as an administration is let’s take a bit of a more comprehensive look at it. Let’s not just move things for the sake of moving things,” said Technology Agency Secretary Ramos during an appearance today on Techleader.TV.
Ramos said a working group with members from the Technology Agency, Department of General Services (DGS) and other stakeholders including project managers and state procurement officials will be convened to analyze current problems with the process. “Let’s take a look at what are the issues with procurement,” he said.
AB 1498 (Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo) was signed into law in mid-July after Governor’s Reorganization Plan No. 2 passed into law which makes the Technology Agency a department under a new Government Operations Agency.
“This bill would state the intent of the Legislature that, as part of the planning required for implementing those provisions of the Governor’s Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 2012, a plan for transitioning information technology procurement authority from the Department of General Services to the Department of Technology be developed by the Governor or his or designee,” the bill language states.
“Currently the Technology Agency develops IT acquisition policy, DGS develops procedures to effectuate it and the Department of Finance provides financial input. The triforcated system causes large technology projects to wind through a bureaucratic labyrinth, said Buchanan about the legislation earlier this month at a technology industry conference. She said problems with the current approach do not allow the state to optimize service contracts or to buy strategically or in bulk. “It’s my sincere hope that this will give IT the attention it deserves and allow the state to shorten time to complete projects.” she concluded.
At the same conference, DGS Director Fred Klass said he is working closely with Ramos and is more concerned about finding solutions than in what department the authority will reside. “Where it goes is less important than how it’s done, and what we need to do first is talk about how the process for procuring IT can be fixed.”
http://techwire.net/working-group-being-convened-to-study-move-of-it-procurement-authority-to-technology-agency/