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Lawmakers press ADS oversight: ERP cost estimates, gap analysis and dashboard accuracy questioned
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Summary
During an extended briefing April 22, JFO warned the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee that confidence in the ERP project cost estimate is limited, urged ADS to provide a completed gap analysis and a historical-data plan, and raised concerns about data completeness on the EPMO project dashboard.
Members of the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee spent much of Wednesday's hearing pressing for clearer oversight information on the statewide ERP project and on the EPMO dashboard that reports project status.
Lisa Goggin, the Joint Fiscal Office IT consultant, told the committee she is "not confident" in the secretary's understating of ERP costs and expects uncovered gaps as implementation proceeds. She cited independent estimates that replacing some legacy systems — referenced in testimony as STARS and FARS — could each require $25 million to $30 million if replaced separately. "I am not confident in that number because I don't think they've ... I think they're going to uncover gaps," Goggin said.
Committee members said they had heard the secretary describe the full ERP as likely to come in under $60 million; Goggin said she could not confirm that figure and pressed for a gap analysis and clearer documentation. Representative Kathleen James said she felt "uncomfortable" being asked to recommend expenditures in the tens of millions without the information needed for proper oversight: "the very uncomfortable position ... to make recommendations about expenditures that are in the tens of millions of dollars without feeling totally confident."
Lawmakers also raised questions about project sequencing and risk: Goggin explained why agencies sometimes implement modules in phases (for example budget, HR and finance) and why the work can produce integration challenges, particularly where time-management and payroll systems (STARS) capture data at a different granularity than the proposed ERP.
The committee asked ADS to provide its completed gap analysis and a plan for historical data access (how legacy data will be made available), and requested that JFO identify program-level staff (for example, STARS and FARS business leads) to invite for testimony so lawmakers can hear from the on-the-ground program users. Committee members also noted the auditor of accounts' ongoing review of dashboard accuracy and flagged missing dashboard entries (for example VT Buys) as items to reconcile.
The committee did not vote on any policy but directed staff to draft follow-ups and to invite program staff and relevant ADS personnel to future hearings.
