The state superagency that provides computer and information technology service to every other state agency doesn’t answer to the governor, and it should, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said today.
Kaine said he feels most of the failures that have spawned two legislative panels to probe the Virginia Information Technologies Agency result from its oversight structure and management.
“I hope what the Legislature will do ... is come to the conclusion that this agency should report to the governor like every other agency does,” Kaine said on his monthly radio program on WRVA in Richmond and the Virginia News Network.
VITA, established six years ago, and Northrop Grumman, its partner in a $2.4 billion, 10-year contract, have missed major deadlines in their task of transforming a far-flung patchwork of disparate agency computer systems into an integrated statewide network. Delays in providing service have prompted complaints from state agencies for several years.
The House Science and Technology Committee and a subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee have both held hearings on the issue. Also, the Freedom of Information Advisory Council ruled last month that the board that oversees VITA improperly met in private to discuss the Northrop Grumman contract, the largest state contract with a single vendor ever in Virginia.
Kaine voiced frustration today that the agency through which all other agencies communicate is outside his authority to manage.
“State agencies have felt they have not been well served by the contractor and by VITA, the agency. This is where the structural problem becomes important,” Kaine said.
He noted that rather than report to the governor, VITA reports to the Information Technology Investment Board, a majority of whose members are appointed by the General Assembly.
“More of the customer service problems have been because of the VITA structure and management than because of the performance of the contractor,” Kaine said.
The issue of Northrop Grumman’s performance was at the heart of the dismissal in June of the former state chief information officer Lemuel Stewart. In the CIO’s role as overseer of VITA, Stewart had balked at paying a monthly bill to Northrop Grumman, citing missed deadlines and other complaints.
Stewart’s interim replacement is Leonard Pomata, a former corporate information technology executive whom Kaine had appointed days earlier as his secretary of technology. Legislators criticized Pomata’s holding the dual roles as VITA’s overseer and his seat on the governor’s cabinet.
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