NASHVILLE — The state’s problem-plagued Edison computer system appears to have struck again, a top official said Tuesday.
State Comptroller Justin Wilson told Senate Finance Committee members that the executive branch’s $135 million computer system appears to be the “major” culprit behind his office’s inability to close the books on the state’s 2008-09 budget year by a Jan. 31 deadline.
“I don’t want to overstate anything, but we are behind in closing the books,” Mr. Wilson said. “We have not received information we would receive at this time from (the finance department). It appears that Edison is a primary, is a major cause for that.”
Mr. Wilson said the national bond rating agencies, which look to the state’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for guidance, were notified months ago that the audit report would be late.
Edison was intended to replace the state’s aging mainframe computers with a new system that more efficiently would process payroll, vendor payments and other necessary functions. But state employees and some vendors have charged that Edison’s implementation was a disaster, causing payroll problems and delaying vendor payments.
Those snags caused delays as the system was phased in to other departments, officials said. In a domino effect, that resulted in having dual computer systems with the information in older systems having to be converted over to the Edison system, Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said.
“That conversion process has proven more difficult than what was anticipated, so that’s really the core cause of the delay,” Mr. Goetz said. “We’ve been working with the comptroller’s office throughout this. … We notified the rating agencies last fall.”
He said a legislative committee also was apprised of the issue.
“We don’t want this to happen again and again, but there’s no great harm from having a delay,” Mr. Goetz said.
“We need to finish the closing so they (comptroller’s office) can audit it and present the single audit to the federal government,” he said. “That’s probably the biggest deadline that we have.”