The state Information Technology department will be borrowing $950,000 from the Bank of North Dakota to continue the computer system replacement project at the Secretary of State’s office.
State law says ITD can borrow the money without the approval of the Legislature’s Budget Section – as long as it’s under $1 million. The next Legislature will be asked for a deficit appropriation to pay for the loan.
State IT director Mike Ressler says it’s an update of the system that runs the operations of the Department. The Legislature okayed $3.6 million for the project – but Ressler says it will be more expensive than that.
"When we put the estimate together in the beginning, in many cases we don't do a thorough analysis," said Ressler. "You're looking for a budget number. When we went through and did that thorough analysis, we determined there was a lot more work there than what we first expected."
Ressler says the 2015 Legislature will be asked for a deficit appropriation to pay back that loan. And he says he wants to make changes on how projects of this type are presented to lawmakers.
"When we give these budget numbers, we at ITD and the agencies have an expectation that we have a good understanding of what that is," said Ressler. "So we set the expectation that those budget estimates are the cost of these projects. In hindsight, we know we're not going to know that number until we have spent time going through the analysis."
Ressler says that analysis comes with a cost. And he says he’d like to have analysis money up front – so IT can determine the actual cost of the project.