Objective

To determine the extent of implementation of the two recommendations included in our initial audit report, Oversight of Information Technology Consultants and Contract Staffing (Report 2018-S-38).

About the Program

The Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) was established in November 2012 as part of a New York State Information Technology Transformation to consolidate and merge State agencies’ operations and streamline information technology (IT) services. As the State’s centralized technology agency, ITS provides statewide IT strategic direction, directs IT policy, and delivers centralized IT products and services that support the mission of the State. ITS has a contracts and procurement unit that oversees the procurement of both contracts and other purchases, including those for IT services provided by consultants and contract staff. According to ITS’ policies, program managers are responsible for monitoring project deliverables and timelines, and then determining if deliverables are acceptable and milestones have been met.

Our initial audit report, issued September 16, 2019, sought to determine whether ITS was adequately monitoring IT services procured from consultants and contract staff to ensure compliance with contract terms and deliverables. The initial audit covered ITS agreements between April 1, 2015 and July 12, 2018 and subsequent documentation and information provided by ITS through April 29, 2019. During our initial audit we found, in general, that ITS was monitoring IT services procured from consultants and contract staff to ensure compliance with contract terms and deliverables. For 14 of the 20 contracts we reviewed, ITS provided adequate oversight to ensure that the contractor or consultant was meeting the deliverables. For the remaining six contracts, for which ITS paid out more than $156 million, deficiencies in contract monitoring – primarily of contractors’ reporting and documentation requirements – create a risk that ITS may not have received the required deliverables. Most notably, we found significant monitoring deficiencies for the International Business Machines (IBM) Service Desk contract as compared to the others in our sample that also had monitoring deficiencies.

Key Finding

ITS has made progress in correcting the problems we identified in the initial report. Both recommendations have been implemented.