BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 805
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Date of Hearing: May 27, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
AB
805 (Burke) - As Amended April 15, 2015
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| |Accountability and | |9 - 0 |
| |Administrative Review | | |
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: NoReimbursable: No
SUMMARY:
This bill requires the Department of Technology (CalTech), in
cooperation with the Department of General Services (DGS), to
establish and implement an information technology (IT)
AB 805
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procurement training program and curriculum. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Specifies that the program and curriculum aim to develop,
sustain, and advance participants' competency and skills in
complex IT acquisition.
2)Requires CalTech, in cooperation with DGS, to submit to the
Legislature by January 1, 2017, a report on establishing the
training program.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Ongoing costs to Caltech of $130,000 for one-position to develop
the training program and provide the training. In addition to
the classroom training, CalTech will provide mentoring for
trainees throughout the management of the project. Mentoring
will require one-half position (about $50,000 of staff time) per
trainee, so total cost will depend on the number of trainees.
Assuming four trainees per year, costs would be around $200,000.
[Technology Services Revolving Fund]
Minor and absorbable costs to DGS.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. This bill is intended to establish a curriculum to
better train state employees involved in IT procurement, and
thereby decrease the risk of problems in the public
contracting and implementation process.
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According to the author: "For several years fiscal constraints
have caused the state to lower training budgets, eliminate
training programs, and restrict travel to training events.
This in combination with an aging workforce, has created an
unprecedented event now termed the 'Silver Tsunami' where many
of the senior managers and journey level staff are retiring
from the workforce, resulting in a very large knowledge and
competency drain. Due to the fiscal constraints, there has
not been the ability to adequately train and replace the
levels of experience that have and are continuing to exit the
workforce."
2)Background. In 2014, to augment CalTech's ability to help
state agencies succeed with IT procurement, the Legislature
and Governor allocated funding for CalTech to create a new
California Project Management Office (California PMO). The
California PMO is intended to make project management staff
and IT project expertise available to other state agencies.
With California PMO, a state agency that does not have
qualified in-house staff, or that loses a project manager
midway through an IT project, will be able to borrow a highly
skilled project manager so that the project can continue on
schedule.
CalTech also shares responsibility with DGS for providing
training services to the ranks of IT professionals who work
in-house at state agencies and departments. According to DGS,
the California Procurement Contracting Agency (Cal-PCA) was
established to provide professional development courses and
workshops for state employee procurement specialists for
general goods and services, as well as IT procurement
projects. The Cal-PCA academy offers beginning and
intermediate courses that are designed to provide a foundation
for IT procurement specialists. However, the Academy does not
offer advanced coursework for IT procurement specialists who
handle the state's most complex IT acquisitions.
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3)State Auditor's Report. According to the State Auditor,
undertrained and inexperienced staff is a key factor in
California's history of IT procurement failures. In the most
recent assessment of CalTech's oversight of IT projects, the
State Auditor emphasizes that high staff turnover combined
with inconsistent training has compromised CalTech's ability
to successfully oversee large IT projects. The State Auditor
specifically recommends that CalTech develop and implement a
"consistent and repeatable training program" by June 2015 in
order to mitigate the risk of failure on current IT projects.
4)Related Legislation. AB 522 (Burke), pending in this
Committee, would require the DGS and the CalTech, by January
1, 2017, to develop a standardized contractor performance
assessment report system and to use this system when awarding
all IT contracts.
5)Recent Prior legislation.
a) AB 2523 (Cooley), Chapter 391, Statutes of 2014,
required CalTech to report to the Legislature by July 1,
2016, with recommendations on developing a team of senior
consulting IT experts to help state agencies and senior
project team members working on IT projects in state
government. The bill also required CalTech to establish a
unit at CalTech to house IT experts who could serve as
support for state agencies.
b) SB 71 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review), Chapter
28, Statutes of 2013, transferred the responsibility for IT
procurement from DGS to CalTech.
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c) AB 1498 (Buchanan), Chapter 139, Statutes of 2012,
modified the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 2 of 2012
(GRP 2) so that the Director of Technology reported
directly to the Governor on issues relating to IT and
declared the intent of the Legislature that a plan for
transitioning IT procurement authority from DGS to CalTech
be developed by the administration.
d) AB 2408 (Smyth) Chapter 404, Statutes of 2010, codified
the Governor's Reorganization Plan No. 1 (GRP 1) of 2009
which consolidated state IT functions under the Office of
the State Chief Information Officer and changed the name of
the Office to the "California Technology Agency."
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081