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House committee to ask finance commissioner to include business-side costs in IT project tracking
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Summary
The House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee agreed April 22 to send a memo asking Finance Commissioner Gresham and ADS to track both IT and related business costs (for example, business process reengineering and staff augmentation) on major IT projects so the legislature can better assess total project costs and budget requests.
Representative Kathleen James, chair of the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee, said Wednesday the panel will draft and circulate a letter to Finance Commissioner Gresham asking that the Agency of Digital Services (ADS) track not only IT vendor costs but also business-side costs that materially support project delivery.
"Project-level tracking should include not only contracts with IT vendors, but also business-side contracts that materially support project delivery," James said, giving business process reengineering and hiring temporary staff to backfill agency employees working on a project as examples. She asked staff to fold JFO consultant Lisa Goggin’s language into a revised memo the committee will send and agreed to circulate a draft to members for comment.
Goggin, who identified herself as a Joint Fiscal Office IT consultant, told the committee that coding and a consistent chart of accounts are essential so the legislature can easily pull and compare expenditures across agencies. "It's either not available or inconsistent," she said of agency reporting on staff time and related business costs.
Members said the request is timely because the House-passed budget includes language directing ADS, in consultation with finance and management, to produce plans addressing the information technology fund. James said she will reference that language in the memo to show the House already expected some form of reporting.
Committee members also raised transparency concerns about the modernization (mod) fund. Several members said they had assumed ADS could use interest that accrues to the fund, but Goggin clarified ADS would need specific statutory authority or legislative approval to spend interest dollars on projects. "In order to pull the interest out … ADS would also have to get authority to take the interest and use it for a specific purpose," Goggin said.
Next steps the committee agreed on: James will redraft the memo to request that ADS include business-side costs in project tracking, circulate the draft to members and Lisa Goggin for accuracy checks, and copy relevant officials (including the finance commissioner and, at members’ suggestion, Secretary Hughes and JFO). The committee will continue oversight work as part of its broader review of FY27 budget requests.
The committee did not take a formal vote; members agreed on the next procedural steps and to request ADS provide requested reports and clarifications in upcoming sessions.
