State auditor to eye technology contracts
Firm's ties with Rendell officials questioned

Sunday, May 11, 2008
BY JAN MURPHY
Of The Patriot-News

State contracts with an information technology consultant and an initiative to equip classrooms with technology are about to go under the auditor general's microscope.

At the request of Senate Republican leaders, Auditor General Jack Wagner has agreed to conduct a performance audit of state contracts with Deloitte Consulting for Jan. 1, 2004, through Dec. 31, 2007.

A Patriot-News analysis of payments made to Deloitte, an international firm with U.S. headquarters in New York City, tallied more than $330 million during that four-year span. That was primarily for information technology services.

Some current and former state employees question how one company got so much of the state's technology business and whether it had anything to do with ties to Deloitte held by four high-level officials in Gov. Ed Rendell's administration.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-Jefferson County, and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware County, also requested Wagner study the money spent in the first 18 months of a three-year $230 million classroom technology initiative launched by Rendell in 2006.

Wagner agreed to the leaders' request that he try to complete the audits or provide interim reports by June 2.

JAN MURPHY: 232-0668 or jmurphy@patriot-news.com

Source: The Patriot-News