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In
response to Patrick McSweeney’s column of last
week ("Time to
Come Clean", March 15, 2004), I’d like to
set the record straight on the Warner
administration's record on the reform and
consolidation of information technology (IT).
McSweeney’s
column offers a less-than-balanced summary of a
series of exchanges that the Warner administration
has had with Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Manassas, on
the topic of streamlining state government. In
letters dated Feb. 2,
2004, from the secretary of
administration and Feb. 16,
2004, Feb. 23, 2004 and
March 30, 2004, from the secretary of technology, the
Warner administration lays out in significant detail
the status of both the Wilder Commission
recommendations and the efforts to reform IT within
state government.
As
is made clear in these letters, the Wilder
Commission emphasized that implementation of its
proposed recommendations would result in long-term
savings that would take between two and four years
to demonstrate initial results. It is therefore not
possible or practical to assume that significant
savings from either the Wilder Commission reforms or
the IT consolidation would begin to accrue
immediately in the short term.
It
may come as a surprise to Mr. McSweeney that efforts
to achieve even further savings through IT
consolidation were stymied by Republican members of
the General Assembly. Although the governor proposed
an expedited timetable for consolidation in
legislation presented to the 2003 General Assembly,
Republican leaders in the General Assembly insisted
upon a compromise calling for an 18-month timetable
and a phased transition for IT consolidation. This
compromise has a significant impact upon the ability
to achieve savings quickly, with the bulk of the
savings envisioned for the IT consolidation
initiative occurring only after the consolidation
has been completed.
In
spite of these obstacles, the Warner administration
projects that some early savings will be achieved
through IT consolidation. Gross savings totaling
nearly $50 million are anticipated so far through
the upcoming budget biennium, broken down as
follows:
-
FY
2004 - $10.3 million
-
FY
2005 - $17.2 million
-
FY
2006 - $22.1 million
So
how does this reconcile with the $100 million in
annual savings that Governor Warner asserted in his
interview with the magazine Information Week?
Governor Warner made clear in his quote that these
figures are long-term savings, quoted as
“combining IT operations under VITA will
save Virginia taxpayers nearly $100 million a
year” (emphasis added).
Mr.
McSweeney’s letter is another of his misguided
attempts to belittle actual efforts to reshape state
government and find ways to spend taxpayer dollars
more effectively. Virginia
is experiencing what every major corporation and
entity that changes a business practice finds: Change
is hard and requires constant vigilance to achieve
savings. It is
not a magical and easy way to produce hard savings,
but will result in long-term benefits for the
Commonwealth.
If
Virginia had not embarked on this path with Gov.
Warner’s leadership, would Mr. McSweeney and his
allies have known enough to suggest these reforms?
Or would they simply continue to bemoan
‘fat’ and ‘waste’ in government, offering no
meaningful suggestions to eliminate it?
--
April 12, 2004
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