September 14, 2011
Maragos: County IT Must Follow Through and Urgently Improve Management Practices to Mitigate Operations Risk
Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos released his audit of the Nassau County Department of Information Technology (“IT”) and found the need for urgent improvement to its management and operational procedures in order to mitigate risks and deliver productivity improvements.
Our audit found fundamental deficiencies in the following critical areas;
- IT did not have backup or a succession plan for the replacement of key employees. If certain key employees retire or leave the County, critical IT systems may not be able to be restored in the event of failure.
- IT does not have a formal written policy describing its software management process, which may result in unauthorized changes or programming errors which can cause systems failures affecting County Operations.
- Most of the County Technology Capital Improvement projects, totaling $190.8 million, are seriously behind schedule.
"The IT Department is critical to the County,” Comptroller Maragos stressed. “All services to the public can be affected, including public safety, should any major technology systems fail and not be quickly restored. IT is further being relied upon to deliver the productivity improvements possible through deployment of technology. Smart technology improvements are critical for the County in order to continue providing essential services at lower costs and therefore offset the need for higher taxes. Project implementation delays must be avoided as they inevitably lead to cost overruns.”
