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Committee approves $8 million amendment to Department of Safety’s driver-services contract after questions about sole-source increases
Summary
The Fiscal Review Committee approved an amendment to the Department of Safety’s automated license issuance (A-List) contract that increases maximum liability by roughly $8 million and extends the end date to Sept. 11, 2026. Committee members pressed the department on the breakdown of added costs and repeated use of change orders on a sole-source IT
The Fiscal Review Committee approved an amendment to the Tennessee Department of Safety’s automated license issuance system, commonly called A-List, that increases the contract’s maximum liability by roughly $8 million and extends the end date to Sept. 11, 2026.
Department officials told the committee the amendment will add two-factor authentication via SMS and other work required to maintain interoperability and federal reporting. Ben Vojtus, legislative liaison for the Department of Safety, said the change would add 8,284,200 (reported in committee materials and discussed as “about $8 million”), bringing the contract’s maximum liability to $20,392,500 and extending the term to 09/11/2026.
Representative Jason Bricken and other committee members requested a plain-language breakdown of the added amount. Sonya Hadley, the department’s budget director, itemized multiple components she said accounted for the increase: an interface with the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AMVA) estimated at about $3,800,000; another AMVA-related interface at roughly a “hundred and something thousand;” a FAST MDL integration at about $150,000; a potential contract to address queuing issues (about $700,000, pending agency decision); an AMBA digital image access exchange change order for about $38,000; an FMCSA NRI item for about $120,000 related to medical examiner registration; and monthly maintenance costs that compose the remainder.
Bricken and other members pressed the department on procurement choices. Bricken said he was troubled by the size of the increase on a sole-source contract, noting fiscal review had asked questions and that he could not reconcile the responses. He and other legislators questioned whether those services should have been rebid rather than added by change order.
Hadley said some interfaces were newly required by external systems and standards, and that maintenance and renewal fees were typically added at renewal. Committee members asked how much of the $8 million represented change orders; officials and members discussed an estimate that change orders comprised roughly half the increase.
After the discussion, the committee voted to approve the amendment by voice vote. Members who questioned the change orders and sole-source approach did not block approval.
Ending: Committee members expressed continued concern about the use of sole-source modifications and change orders for large IT contracts and asked the department to return if further amendments are needed.
