Judge advises re-bid of N.C. project

A North Carolina judge this month sided with EDS Corp. in its protest of a five-year, $171 million Medicaid IT refresh contract won in April by Affiliated Computer Services Inc.

Senior Administrative Law Judge Fred Morrison ruled this month that the state's award of the contract to ACS of Dallas be canceled and the contract be re-bid, EDS said.

State officials should have disqualified the ACS bid for failing to meet mandatory requirements in the department's request for proposal, the judge ruled.

George Bakolia, the state's chief information officer, has 120 days to decide whether to accept the nonbinding recommendation.

IRS cuts modernization work

The Internal Revenue Service is beginning to process the simplest tax returns with the latest version of its new taxpayer database.

But an anemic 2005 budget will force the agency to curtail work on most efforts to modernize its business systems and instead focus on payment and compliance and improving tax administration, said IRS Chief Information Officer Todd Grams.

IRS won't do any new work this year on the next releases of the Integrated Financial System or the Custodial Accounting Project. Both are components on the multibillion-dollar prime contract held by Computer Sciences Corp., El Segundo, Calif.