Lights out for MyFlorida Alliance
Simone Marstiller, Florida Chief Information Office
Phil Coale/AP
Another major statewide outsourcing initiative has died. In the past month and half, Florida has cancelled the three contracts totaling more than $250 million that were the heart of its MyFlorida Alliance.
In August, Florida cancelled an $87 million help desk contract that Accenture Ltd. won. At the end of September, the state cancelled a $126 million contract held by BearingPoint Inc. of McLean, Va., for data center services and a $46.7 million contract for applications management held by Accenture.
The latter cancellations came just weeks after Florida Chief Information Office Simone Marstiller offered assurances that the state was sticking with the contracts.
"We may need to shore things up here and there, but those [contracts] are not problematic," she said just weeks before canceling them.
The MyFlorida Alliance began unraveling following the release in July of a blistering report by the Florida State Auditor General charging that the state technology office under then CIO Kim Bahrami did not sufficiently document its decision to outsource, did not properly evaluate the bids and did not establish detailed contract provisions to protect state resources.
In a press release announcing termination of the MyFlorida Alliance contracts, Marstiller said BearingPoint and Accenture had "worked hard to provide the state with quality services" while performing on the contracts for the past year. But after further review, she decided to terminate all contracts related to the MyFlorida Alliance.
"We already have addressed a number of the issues in the Auditor General's report and will continue to make adjustments to ensure that our procurements are transparent, competitive and fair," she said.
Florida joins Connecticut and Georgia as states that have tried and failed to implement major outsourcing initiatives.