OKLAHOMA CITY — The state’s chief information officer on Tuesday defended his department against claims that large-scale consolidation of technology services has increased IT costs rather than save the hundreds of millions of dollars claimed by the Fallin administration.
“We have a very specific law that says I have responsibility for IT expenditures,” CIO Bo Reese told a House special investigations committee on his second day of testimony. “If I allow 111 agencies to buy 111 different case management systems, you’re going to call me to a committee meeting and ask me, ‘Why did you let them do that?’”
The committee was originally charged with looking into mismanagement at the state Department of Health but turned to the IT department after complaints that it contributed to the problem with excessive charges for services and new systems.
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Several weeks ago, former Chief Operating Officer Deborah Nichols said the Health Department’s IT costs went from $10 million a year to $100 million a year.
Reese said those higher costs stem from the department bringing several expensive new systems on line in the past few years.
“If their costs went up since consolidation, it was because they were consuming a lot more IT,” Reese said. “They were doing a lot more things.”
IT consolidation has been a major initiative of Gov. Mary Fallin’s administration since her first days in office. Fallin and lawmakers who successfully pushed for the move said it would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars while improving security.
But some agencies have long contended that consolidation costs more than if they handled IT internally. That the new IT department is under the purview of the Office of Management and Enterprise Services, an agency created by Fallin to give the governor more control of state government, has made it even more unpopular with agency leaders and lawmakers.
In a resignation letter last week, former Health Department Chief Financial Officer Michael Romero implied that interim Health Commissioner Preston Doerflinger, formerly head of OMES, seemed to be protecting the IT department from claims that it charged the Health Department for unnecessary and unwanted services.
On Tuesday, Reese said he thinks Nichols and Romero did not understand that agency administrators were making IT decisions or why certain services and safeguards are necessary in a government setting.
Earlier Tuesday, the House Public Health Committee passed two bills by Speaker Charles McCall, R-Atoka, filed in response to the Health Department situation.
House Bill 3581 would protect department whistleblowers, while HB 3585 requires at least two members of the state Board of Health have at least five years’ experience in a “medical business.”
Also Tuesday morning, the House passed its first bill of the session.
HB 2281, by Rep. Terry O’Donnell, R-Catoosa, is a criminal justice reform measure carried over from the 2017 session. It adjusts penalties for 21 relatively minor property offenses, including larceny and forgery, and is intended to reduce the state’s prison population.
