Department of Administration seeks recurring funds for cybersecurity, budget office staffing and IT projects

The Department of Administration asked the Constitutional Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 4 for roughly $10.3 million in recurring funding and $9 million in nonrecurring funding to bolster information security, add budget-office staff and support statewide IT projects.

The department’s executive director, Marcia Adams, said the top priority is a $6.3 million information-security package to reduce the state’s risk profile by improving four areas: enhanced monitoring, email security, endpoint protection and asset discovery and inventory management. “Of that 6,300,000.0, 2.3 million is for a monitoring solution,” Adams said, adding the monitoring platform will be cloud-based and expand log archiving and retention.

The request includes $1 million for endpoint protection for desktops, laptops and phones; $1.5 million for an email security platform; and $1.5 million for asset-discovery and inventory management to detect newly connected devices and misconfigurations. Adams said last year the state received about $1,750,000 toward the monitoring project and the current request would complete that need.

Adams described a second priority of $1.35 million in recurring funds to add seven full-time budget-office positions and related operating costs. “Today we have about 6 people handling all of the budgets of the state,” she said, calling the new positions necessary to enhance management of the operating budget and reduce turnover through retention funding.

The department also seeks $9 million nonrecurring to support the Division of IT Services. Adams said those funds would help develop strategies and standards for new technologies, including work on artificial intelligence, and buy an IT service-management platform to give agency customers self-service options and performance metrics.

Other requests include $2 million in recurring general funds for oversight of large IT and security projects, and $500,000 for the Division of State Human Resources (including licensing for an e-recruitment and onboarding system and $200,000 for compensation-management software). Adams said the department also plans to realign 11 FTEs within the agency rather than request new positions.

Adams noted several proviso changes and deletions the department intends to pursue, including technical amendments and deletions for completed or redirected items: a carry-forward authorization (listed as 9314), the State Treasury forensic accounting review (completed), Savannah River site funding redirect (9317), an Allendale County redirect (9318), and a State House Complex improvements item (9319) tied to a cost-analysis study on burying power lines.

Committee members asked nonbudget questions during the presentation. Representative Kaskey asked whether any requested funds would speed up the elevators in the block building; Adams replied they would not. The chair and other members thanked Adams for the department’s work on the AlexPartners report and for earlier funding the department had received.

The Department of Administration presentation closed with the department’s request for the governor’s mansion budget: $56,540 in recurring funds for increased payroll and employer contribution costs for existing mansion staff.