TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Lawmakers are expressing concerns that the state still has millions of dollars in unused information technology equipment that was bought before a cloud computing plan was scrapped.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers asked to view the equipment Monday while touring the Docking office building, The Topeka Capital-Journal (https://bit.ly/2p2e1h5 ) reports. But the state officials giving the tour didn’t have the key.
“That’s a lot of money sitting behind that door,” Rep. Erin Davis, R-Olathe, said after the tour. “I think all of us would like to get our eyes on it.”
Kansas Office of Information Technology Services reports show that about $17 million was spent on the project before the first quarter of 2016, when the initiative was described as “on hold.” The state decided it was more cost-effective to outsource the work and signed a five-year, $14 million contract with Illinois-based Ensono last year.
The Capital-Journal has asked about how much of the equipment is in storage, but the agency hasn’t responded. The agency told a Senate panel last month that about $6.3 million worth of expenses was used for other projects.
Senators asked the Department of Administration to provide them by the end of Monday with information about whether the state has found a buyer for the equipment. A bidding period closed last week.
“I’m really interested in how many bidders, if any, submitted bids for it,” said Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka.
Sen. Larry Alley, R-Winfield, expressed hope the state will recover whatever costs it can.
“Plans change here at the Capitol as you know,” Alley said. “It takes a while for plans to get developed, and they thought that was the best way to go back then. I’m not going to question their deal, but they changed their mind, found out it was going to be more expensive.”
Sen. Marci Francisco, D-Lawrence, suggested the state should have offloaded the unused equipment by now.
“Once we knew we were going to make that change, we should have sold that equipment as quickly as possible and taken a loss,” she said. “Because it’s computer equipment, so every three to four months the value is reduced and fewer people would be looking for that same kind of a solution.”
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Information from: The Topeka (Kan.) Capital-Journal, https://www.cjonline.com
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