NASA's giant leap

NASA is taking a step in a new direction in replacing its financial information

system, which has been unable to get past Step One for more than a year.

That new path will be without KPMG LLC, the contractor for NASA's Integrated

Financial Management Program. The agency has jettisoned KPMG following a

formal notice sent in January giving the firm 10 days to deliver a plan

to resolve problems with its commercial off-the-shelf software.

KPMG won the $59 million fixed-price contract in September 1997 to deploy

its Performance Series software. After several attempts and more than 18

months of delays, the software still did not work. NASA is considering how

to proceed.