Carolina Journal’s Barry Smith reports here on an audit of North Carolina’s IT division released by State Auditor Beth Wood. In short: myriad problems.
A new report from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office scolds the state’s Information Technology Services division for having cost overruns nearly double original estimates.
The report also says that projects took about 65 percent longer to complete than originally estimated. And it chides the agency for not having policies and controls in place to prevent such overruns.
“ITS doesn’t monitor them to see if they come in on budget,” Wood said in an interview Monday. “And they don’t see if they come in on time.”
The audit report says, “The initial estimates are not reliable predictors of the final cost and time schedules.”
Among the 84 projects the auditor’s office reviewed, costs were $356.3 million more than originally estimated, or about twice the cost. Projects took about 389 days longer to complete than state agencies originally estimated, the report says.
