Colo. Pulls Plug on Troubled Computer

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Colorado officials have ditched another troubled computer contract, this time canceling a deal for a system to manage unemployment insurance.

The state and contractor Accenture LLP reached an agreement Tuesday not to sue each other over the contract. Accenture also agreed to refund $8.2 million to the state and drop its claim that the state owes it $7 million.

That $15.2 million should be enough to finish the project, said Dan Hopkins, a Spokesman for Gov. Bill Owens.

The state has already spent $35 million on the project.

Last month, the secretary of state canceled a separate computer contract with Accenture, saying the $10.5 million voter-registration system didn’t work. The state had spent $1.5 million when it killed the deal.

The contract canceled Tuesday was for a computer for the state Department of Labor.

Three of its five components worked but two others did not. The non-working components, which track taxes collected from employers and benefits paid to unemployed workers, are the more important ones, officials said.

In a joint statement, the state and Accenture said they “mutually agreed to terminate” the contract. Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy called the agreement “satisfactory.”

The Colorado Benefits Management System continued to cause headaches a year after going on-line. The computer, which manages welfare payments and other benefits, was expected to cost about $200 million but has run up millions of dollars more in unexpected costs. Electronic Data Systems is the contractor for that computer.

Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, said the state should change the way it hires consultants after the costly computer failures.

“It seems like we get in the middle of these projects and we’re grateful to get a few crumbs back,” she said.

Hopkins said the big failures mask the state’s success with more than 100 other computer projects.