FOR RELEASE:

An ambitious $42 million program to establish a single telecommunications network for state agencies and local governments has been poorly managed and has fallen far short of it goals, according to an audit released today by State Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi.

Conceived in 1996 by a workgroup led by the State Office for Technology (OFT), the goal of the NYeNet project was to create a single reliable, secure and ultimately less costly telecommunications system that would consolidate the separate and incompatible statewide networks used by many agencies and local governments. The Departments of Motor Vehicles, Health, and Correctional Services, the State University of New York, the criminal justice system and many other agencies and localities have used the networks to link to locations around the state, allowing the exchange of data and access to shared computer applications.

“NYeNet is a terrific concept, but the reality is that the project has so far done little to improve services for New Yorkers, streamline operations for local governments or reduce telecommunications costs,” Hevesi said. “Marketing the new network effectively to agencies and local governments is vital to the success of the project, but we found that unfocused project management and poor communications about NYeNet may have actually discouraged participation.”

NYeNet started operation in June, 2000, and was initially intended to consolidate at least six of the largest agency telecommunications networks. However, state auditors found that only three of these six networks – Empire Net, which links certain state agency offices around the state; the Metropolitan Area Network, which connects agencies in the Albany area; and the Long Distance Intercity Networks Communications System (LINCS) – had been moved to the NYeNet as of September, 2002. Of the other three networks, auditors found that CRIMNET, used by the criminal justice system, was in the process of moving to NYeNet, but SUNYNet and the State Lottery Network remained independent.

Auditors also found that no formal plans were in place to add additional networks beyond the six in the initial plan, and that NYeNet did not include other widely-used computer applications, such as the Department of Labor Unemployment Insurance System, the Department of Health Medicaid Payment System or the Department of Motor Vehicles Driver License and Registration System.

One of the stated goals of NYeNet, auditors noted, was increased efficiency and lower costs for local governments, which sometimes must maintain entirely separate computers for each state agency application they use. However, auditors reported that potential agency and local government users may have been discouraged from using NYeNet in part because they waited years to get even the most basic information about the program from OFT.

Auditors did determine that the NYeNet system still has the potential to deliver high-quality cost-effective telecommunications services to users, and that current NYeNet rates are competitive with those of other providers.

In its written response to the audit, OFT did not challenge most of the auditors’ findings, but took issue with the conclusion that the NYeNet project had not attained its major goals.

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