Special panel will probe cost overruns, inefficiency within departments

State Rep. Annette Glenn has been appointed to a special task force charged with examining information and technology systems used by the state.

The bipartisan task force was recently announced by state Rep. Shane Hernandez, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee.

“Rep. Glenn has shown an attention to detail when reviewing the budget that will be an asset to a task force charged with reviewing the state’s IT spending and finding every opportunity for more efficient practices,” Hernandez said. “Her experience on the Department of Health and Human Services subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee will lend itself well to this task force, considering that nearly half of the state’s IT spending is within the DHHS budget.”

“This committee will serve as a needed watchdog for hardworking taxpayers when it comes to state systems they pay into,” said Glenn, of Midland. “This is a consumer protection effort that will dive into how we spend tax dollars in IT and look at how we can make improvements for the sake of efficiency. There are systems with millions of cost overruns for programs, still not working.”

IT is often used to describe computers and computer networks, but also includes all layers of systems within an organization – such as physical hardware, operating systems, applications, databases, storage and servers.

State departments have implemented IT projects that cost more and perform worse than expected. A Department of Health and Human Services system related to tracking child abuse and neglect cases, for example, has received $231 million in the past several years and still has persistent and significant defects. About 40,000 Michigan residents were victimized and wrongfully accused of fraud between 2013 and 2015 by a faulty computer system used by the Unemployment Insurance Agency. A failed Secretary of State computer system overhaul started in 2005 resulted in service issues, lawsuits and cost overruns. The project is still not completed.

The panel will be chaired by state Rep. Mark Huizenga, of Walker. Also joining Glenn are state Rep. Mary Whiteford of Casco Township, state Rep. Terry Sabo of Muskegon and state Rep. Abdullah Hammoud of Dearborn.