WILLIAMSBURG—Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for governor, yesterday leveled his toughest criticism yet of the state’s troubled information-technology agency.
“What I do know is the performance has got to be better. And state agencies have got to be served better,“ McDonnell said after a meeting of IT workers from across Virginia, including the agency’s brass. “We can’t make excuses, and we can’t have delays, and we can’t have finger-pointing. Those are unacceptable.“
The former attorney general spoke shortly after his rival, Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, a state senator from Bath County, addressed the meeting.
Both men—one of whom, in four months, will inherit the state’s largest-ever privatization pact—addressed the issues facing the Virginia Information Technologies Agency and its 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with Northrop Grumman to provide IT services to the state.
McDonnell said he would wait for legislative studies to be completed before pushing specific changes.
In his prepared remarks, McDonnell cushioned his criticism with support for public-private partnerships, some of which he said need more effective management and openness.
“I don’t think anybody would disagree that we need more oversight, more accountability and some retooling of our VITA operation,“ he told the audience. “We’ve got fine public servants there, but I want to see that organization work better and have better performance all the way around.“
Deeds echoed outgoing Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s position that the VITA chief should report directly to the governor. The agency’s boss currently is hired and fired by its oversight board, which includes gubernatorial and legislative appointees, with the majority from the executive branch.
“I believe in the fundamental premise of VITA, and I worked with Mark Warner to bring a business approach to our IT systems, but it’s very clear now that [Warner’s] original plan . . . to have a [chief information officer] appointed by the governor and accountable to the executive branch, is the better approach,“ he said.
VITA was conceived and created under Warner, a former governor who now is a U.S. senator.
Deeds also maintained that VITA would be the first agency audited if he’s elected.
The audience included a couple of representatives from Northrop Grumman as well as VITA’s new head, George F. Coulter. He succeeded Lemuel C. “Lem” Stewart Jr., who was fired by the VITA oversight board after proposing in June that the state withhold a $14 million monthly payment to Northrop Grumman as punishment for delays and spotty service.
He exchanged brief remarks with McDonnell after the program, telling McDonnell that the agency is making headway.
On broader IT issues, Deeds talked about enhancing the state’s health IT systems. McDonnell told the group he would make the secretary of technology a “globe-trotting ambassador for Virginia’s technology field.“
Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or
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