Costs Ran Wild For Government Agency IT ProjectCosts Ran Wild For Government Agency IT Project

Government agencies and their contractors are equally responsible for ensuring their projects are completed on time and on budget. That's the conclusion the Governmental Affairs Committee came to Wednesday after a months-long investigation into an ill-fated project for the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, for which participants and beneficiaries had their retirement accounts debited more than $36 million to pay for years of project costs and legal battles.

In a letter to board chairman Andrew Saul, Senate Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and ranking member Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., criticized both Saul's agency and American Management Systems, the company it hired to develop a record-keeping system for participants and beneficiaries of the retirement savings plan, which includes civilians who are employed by the U.S. government and members of the uniformed services.

The burden of the project's failure was "borne by Thrift Savings Plan participants and beneficiaries, who have yet to receive an adequate explanation of what happened and why," the letter said.

The original project called for AMS to develop and implement a record-keeping system that would help Thrift Investment Board members better record and track federal employee retirement contributions. The project was also to provide federal employees and retirees with online access to their retirement accounts. CGI Group Inc. and CACI International Inc. acquired AMS's different assets in May.

Scheduled for completion by May 2000, the project was to cost an estimated $29.7 million. This quickly ballooned to $65 million due to delays and extra charges. The board later turned to Materials, Communications and Computers Inc., which was subsequently acquired by SI International, to complete the project in 18 months at a cost of $33 million.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Collins office says the committee hasn't determined its next step now that the investigation is completed and the letter sent to the board. "We're waiting to hear back from [the board]," she says.

The board has cooperated with the investigation and is now reviewing the letter, a spokesman says. It has no comment on the investigation at this time.

CGI also received a copy of the letter to the board, but a spokeswoman says the company has no plans to respond. She adds that CGI is hoping the investigation will result in improved processes and better relations with customers.