OMB kills Justice system, revises another at Interior

This article was updated at 7:15 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 20, to include a comment from Computer Sciences Corp.

The administration has chosen to eliminate a Justice Department computer system and overhaul an Interior Department security project as part of its continuing review of some 30 mission-critical information technology initiatives for possible cuts.

During a CIO Council meeting on Monday, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra announced Justice has pulled the plug on its litigation case management system, a move that is projected to save $193 million. The project, which began in 2006, would have cost twice as much to complete as estimated and was years behind schedule, he added. Computer Sciences Corp., Pragmatics Inc. and Ementum Inc. were on contract for the work, according to the IT Dashboard, a website that tracks federal IT investments.

The Interior Department decided to revise its plan for an agencywide system that shares security, law enforcement and emergency management information, Kundra said. Under a new production schedule, the project, called the Incident Management Analysis and Reporting System, will be required to hit milestones at least every six months, which should accelerate project completion, Kundra added.

Both projects were on a list of 26 critical systems, worth a combined $30 billion, that had busted budgets, showed signs of veering off course or were not serving the needs of the agency. Kundra and agency CIOs are combing through data on the projects to decide whether they should be funded in fiscal 2012. The president is expected to issue his budget proposal in February 2011.

"Our review of these high-priority investments has already yielded results," Kundra told the CIOs on Monday. "Our actions to date are the initial steps in making the federal government work better for the American people and send a clear message that we are no longer willing to throw good money after bad money."

On Monday evening, officials at CSC, the lead contractor for Justice's litigation system, said they would welcome another opportunity to do business with the department. "Although we have no current work ongoing with this effort, we are ready to support the Justice Department's continued modernization through any contract vehicle it chooses to exercise with us," CSC spokeswoman Michelle Herd said.