SUN CAPITAL BUREAU
CARSON CITY -- A consulting firm
the state paid $3.6 million may be
on the hot seat Tuesday for the
part it played in the development
of a new trouble-plagued
Department of Motor Vehicles and
Public Safety computer system
that has resulted in long lines of
motorists at DMV offices all over
Nevada.
Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las
Vegas, chairman of a legislative
oversight subcommittee on the
computer system for the DMV,
says he wants to talk to officials of
Best Consulting about the myriad
problems with "Project Genesis."
Suzanne March, head of the Best
Consulting team, could not be
reached for comment. She
reportedly was out of state. But
Carroll Livingston, vice president
for corporate operations for Best
Consulting, told the Associated
Press that the company alerted
the DMV before the Sept. 7 launch
of Genesis that it had concerns
about the computer system.
Deloitte and Touche received
about $9 million for developing the
new system. Best Consulting was
contracted to be a watchdog to
see that major problems were
resolved before the system was
rolled out for use.
Beers said there are two
possibilities. He said Best
Consulting may have notified
Deloitte and Touche of the
problems, and the problems were
not fixed. Or Best Consulting may
not have discovered the problems.
He said he leaned toward the
latter explanation.
He said he hopes Best will have
officials on hand when his
subcommittee meets Tuesday in
Las Vegas.
According to legislative records the
project, which is due to go through
2003, was estimated at $33.7
million -- and it appears to be on
track. The 1997 Legislature
allocated $17.8 million of which
$343,000 was turned back to the
state treasury. The 1999
Legislature appropriated $8.3
million more. The amounts
included the pay of 12 state
employees assigned to the project
during the development stage.
Best Consulting and its
predecessor, Prodata Inc., had
prior problems with the state. Best
was paid $949,240 to design and
install a new computer system for
the Department of Taxation. The
state maintained the system was
defective and never completed.
Best disagreed.
The state sued but dropped the
case after a sealed out-of-court
settlement was reached in March
1998. In the settlement, according
to state officials who asked not to
be named, Best agreed to
reimburse the state more than
$500,000, and the state returned
Best to the list of vendors eligible
to get state contracts.
The Department of Motor Vehicles
hired Best even though it knew of
the past problem with the tax
computer.
Beers also wants to check into the
effectiveness of a past legislative
subcommittee that was to oversee
the computer development the
past two years. Beers, who was
elected in 1998 and not a member
of that subcommittee, said he read
past minutes of the meetings. The
subcommittee, Beers said, was
told that "everything was rosy" with
the computer.
Even during the 1999 Legislature,
he said, there was no hint from the
department that there would be
major problems. Glitches will
always be found in converting to a
new computer system, Beers said.
But they should not be of the
magnitude that has hit the motor
vehicle and public safety
department.
Other agencies, particularly the
state Welfare Division, have had
troubles in developing new
computer systems. Beers said this
shows the state should take a new
direction.
A small state like Nevada should
not try to develop a new computer
system, he said. It should find
other states that have installed
systems that work and then modify
them to fit Nevada's needs. That
would be cheaper and more
reliable, he said.
The welfare division hired IBM to
develop a major computer system
that was to cost $24 million and be
completed in three years. The
costs have reached $100 million,
it's been nearly eight years, and
the Nomads system still is not
working.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/1999/oct/04/509386346.html
-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), October 04, 1999