Illinois comptroller stops payments for
governor's computer modernization
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[March 14, 2017]
By Dave McKinney
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois' state
comptroller has suspended $27 million in payments for a computer
technology initiative launched by Republican Governor Bruce Rauner,
according to a letter seen by Reuters, opening a new front in an ongoing
feud over finances.
The move by Democratic Comptroller Susana Mendoza targets one of the
governor's priorities and comes as Illinois faces a record $12.3 billion
backlog of unpaid bills that has more than tripled in the 21 months the
state has gone without a full operating budget.
In a letter to the Rauner administration, Mendoza's office said halting
payments, including $21.6 million owed to consultants working on
Rauner's $250 million technology upgrade, is warranted because of
uncertainty over how the program will produce long-term savings for the
state.
The letter asked why those consulting firms should be paid before
services like senior centers, hospice care and universities.
"The comptroller wants assurances that resources are being allocated
toward our most critical needs and not toward discretionary
initiatives," Mendoza's senior policy adviser, Patrick Corcoran, wrote.
Mendoza and Rauner clashed in state court this month over paying state
employees without an appropriation from the legislature.
The state comptroller refused to process payments for nearly 600 state
workers from Illinois' cash-strapped general fund, as Rauner wanted.
Instead, she wanted to tap other budgetary lines flush with more than
$93 million.
The court ruled Mendoza could tap the funds but Rauner has appealed the
decision.
Rauner's office said Mendoza's suspension of payments to information
technology contractors would hobble the state's computer modernization,
known as the Enterprise Resource Program (ERP)
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Republican Bruce Rauner smiles after winning the midterm elections
in Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2014. REUTERS/Jim Young
"If Comptroller Mendoza disrupts the ERP implementation process, she
will put our state, residents and sensitive data at risk by forcing
us to function under the current outdated systems," Rauner's
spokeswoman Catherine Kelly said in a statement to Reuters.
McKinsey & Company is owed the most -- $12 million -- among firms
caught in Mendoza's move. The company did not respond to questions
submitted after business hours on Monday about whether it would
continue performing work for the state if it is not paid on a timely
basis.
Kelly said the state continues to expect the upgrade to cost $250
million, and that vendors have billed $63 million over the past
three fiscal years. Of that amount, the state has paid $12.6 million
so far.
(Reporting by Dave McKinney; Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Lisa
Shumaker)
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