No joke—Gov. Bob McDonnell wants a deal with Northrop Grumman before April Fool’s Day that could mean more money for the beleaguered information-technology contractor. Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey hopes to complete negotiations with Northrop Grumman on revisions to its 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with the state by the end of March.

No joke—Gov. Bob McDonnell wants a deal with Northrop Grumman before April Fool’s Day that could mean more money for the beleaguered information-technology contractor. Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey hopes to complete negotiations with Northrop Grumman on revisions to its 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with the state by the end of March.

Legislation overhauling the management of the state’s troubled computer bureaucracy is headed to Gov. Bob McDonnell. Senate Bill 236, by Democrat Janet D. Howell of Fairfax and Republicans Walter A. Stosch of Henrico and Ryan T. McDougle of Hanover, puts the Virginia Information Technologies Agency under the governor’s control. For months, VITA and Northrop Grumman, the company hired to manage a vast swatch of Virginia’s IT network, have been roiled by controversy.

Virginia’s new secretary of technology is taking command of negotiations with Northrop Grumman in the latest attempt to salvage relations with the company hired to run the state’s computer network. Jim Duffey is in talks with the defense contractor, attempting to forge an agreement that could mean more money for Northrop Grumman while improving services, which legislative investigators have derided as spotty, costly and behind schedule.

Three weeks into the job, Secretary of Technology Jim Duffey believes that Virginia’s troubled $2.3 billion deal with Northrop Grumman is “very resolvable.“

To drive home just how pricey the project has become, the Senate measure to overhaul Virginia’s IT bureaucracy has been assigned the number 236—as in $2.36 billion. That is the initial cost to taxpayers of the switch to a privately managed computer network under the state’s richest-ever outsourcing contract. The Senate bill, and a companion bill in the House of Delegates, would shift authority over information technology from a little-known state board splintered by rivalries to where some say it always should have been: the governor’s office.

Their days numbered, two overseers of Virginia’s embattled information-technology program are quitting before they’re dumped. Hiram Johnson and Bert Reese have resigned from the panel that supervises the Virginia Information Technologies Agency, which has been wrestling for months with contractor Northrop Grumman over poor service and spiraling costs.

Hiram Johnson, a critic of Northrop Grumman’s IT performance, cites “differences of opinion with the direction the board was going in.“ Another member of the panel that oversees the state’s embattled computer program also is quitting. Bert Reese, who headed the search committee that recruited George F. Coulter as Virginia’s computer chief, said: “I’m off to slay other dragons!!!“

Fed up with delays and rising costs, lawmakers are depicting Virginia’s switch to a privately run IT system as a rip-off for taxpayers. Blasting state computer chief George F. Coulter and contractor Northrop Grumman, members of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday angrily demanded an end to turmoil that has rocked the program for months.

Fed up with delays and rising costs, lawmakers are depicting Virginia’s switch to a privately run IT system as a rip-off for taxpayers. Blasting state computer chief George F. Coulter and contractor Northrop Grumman, members of the House Appropriations Committee today angrily demanded an end to turmoil that has rocked the program for months.

Virginia’s computer boss is trying to sell a cash-strapped state government on pricey tweaks to a disputed IT deal with Northrop Grumman, but lawmakers aren’t buying. George F. Coulter, chief information officer, yesterday outlined for Secretary of Finance Richard D. “Ric” Brown revisions to a computer-services contract with Northrop Grumman that eventually could cost taxpayers an additional $35 million a year.

Virginia’s computer boss is trying to sell a cash-strapped state government on pricey tweaks to a disputed IT deal with Northrop Grumman, but lawmakers aren’t buying. George F. Coulter, chief information officer, today outlined for Secretary of Finance Richard D. “Ric” Brown revisions to a computer-services contract with Northrop Grumman that eventually could cost taxpayers an additional $35 million a year.

The state’s computer chief and beleaguered contractor Northrop Grumman have struck an informal deal on adjustments to information-technology services that hinge on a big if: an additional $20 million or more a year from taxpayers. The pending agreement, outlined in proposed revisions to a contract that already is a year behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, is before the attorney general’s office as well as lawyers for Northrop Grumman.

The state’s computer chief and beleaguered contractor Northrop Grumman have struck an informal deal on adjustments to information-technology services that hinge on a big “if:“ another $20 million a year or more from taxpayers. Outlined in proposed revisions to a contract that is already a year behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget, the pending agreement is before the attorney general’s office as well as lawyers for Northrop Grumman.