State legislators ordered a state audit Wednesday to probe several information-technology projects at various state departments, including the University of Wisconsin System.
Wisconsin spends about $740 million per year on information-technology projects — more than double the amount in 1998 — according to the Legislative Audit Bureau.
The State Elections Board, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Revenue are also being audited.
"There have been numerous reports of computer systems within state departments either having cost overruns or very large contracts where there is a question as to whether taxpayers are getting the most out of their money," said Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.
Fitzgerald is a member of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Audit.
Notably, IT spending at UW System schools has garnered the most attention, Prentiss said. He cited the size of the contracts, the amount of time they take and reports in the media about the low level of progress being made.
According to Donald Mash, executive senior vice president of the UW System and former chancellor at UW-Eau Claire, the large fees in the UW System's IT contracts come from the personnel involved in the developments, specifically technology consultants.
Mash added that only a small portion of the IT costs actually go toward purchasing the software.
The technology budget problem in the UW System arose due to a project that attempted to create a new payroll and benefits system.
"We are trying to make it applicable to all schools in the UW System, all of which do things a little differently, which is one of the issues," Mash said.
He added that UW-Madison in particular causes organizational problems due to the large number of employees and the complexity of the university.
"If we can get it implemented across the entire UW System, it will save money," Mash said.
The state audit committee will look at the IT contracts of these government departments and make recommendations regarding whether they are running efficiently, Prentiss said.
However, Prentiss noted that it is too soon to speculate about the effects of the audits.
"It's too early to say how [the audit] is going to affect any part of state government," he said.
The audit will create an inventory of all projects in progress in each of the state departments involved, including the budgets and expected completion dates of their projects.
As part of the audit, reviews of projects completed in the last two years will be conducted to see if the projects stayed within their budgets and time schedules.
