State tech contract had no outside review
Source: By PATRICK MARLEY, Journal Sentinel (WI), May 16, 2007
The state never sought an independent analysis of whether it should consolidate its computer servers before it embarked on the job - a project that state officials now say might not realize any of the $15.6 million in projected savings. The state hired Indianapolis-based Crowe Chizek & Co. to make recommendations on server consolidation and then implement those recommendations. The arrangement "raises the concern that the contractor has an incentive to portray server consolidation as beneficial to the state," legislative auditors wrote in recently released documents.
……. Crowe Chizek was to get $7 million for the work, but last year the state refused to pay $1.8 million of that because the job wasn't finished. Crowe Chizek then stopped working on the project, and state employees have been handling it since.