LAS VEGAS SUN
Deloitte and Touche, the vendor
for the glitch-plagued Department
of Motor Vehicles and Public
Safety's computer system, has
extended its service contract for
one month to Dec. 7.
Nevada Assemblyman Bob Beers,
R-Las Vegas, chairman of the
oversight committee on the DMV's
$35 million Genesis computer
system, said he was informed by
Gov. Kenny Guinn's office of the
agreement late last week and, as a
result, postponed a scheduled
Friday meeting.
"We will reschedule that meeting
to Nov. 16 to gather information to
present to the Interim Finance
Committee on Nov. 17," Beers,
president of a local computer
consulting business, said Monday.
"I have a much happier feeling
now than I did before I got the
news (of the service contract
extension)."
In October, Beers told the Sun
and the Sun's nightly television
news magazine, "POV Vegas,"
that he felt there was no chance
that Deloitte and Touche would be
able to identify and repair major
bugs by the previous expiration
date, which would have been
Sunday.
"The key now is that there is a
chance that we can get the critical
ones fixed by Dec. 7," Beers said.
Those glitches led to waits of up to
eight hours at DMV offices and
caused a backup of mail-in
registrations for several weeks.
The cost of the contract was part
of the overall cost of the project.
However, repairs beyond Sunday
would have cost extra -- a sum
that would have been paid by
taxpayers.
It was on the Oct. 8 airing of
"POV" that Beers said: "I just
learned that the current contract
for Deloitte and Touche to fix all
urgent bugs will be up 30 days
from today. After Sunday, the state
has to pay to fix those problems."
Beers said the problem with fixing
the DMV system quickly is that
critical bugs prevent other steps
from being completed. He said
that at the rate such problems
were cropping up, it would have
been impossible to identify and fix
them all by Sunday.
Attempts Monday to reach John
Lemelin, Deloitte and Touche's
project manager for the DMV
system, were unsuccessful. State
offices were closed in observance
of the Nevada Day holiday.
In a prior interview, Lemelin said
some of the problems the firm was
addressing in the DMV system that
went online Sept. 7 were
enhancements that incorporated
suggestions from users to make it
more efficient.
Lemelin expressed confidence that
his firm would be able to address
the problems within the warranty
period.
Officials at Deloitte and Touche
headquarters in New York have
been contacted for comment.
Company spokesman David
Mandell said all questions had to
be submitted in writing.
The Sun e-mailed his office
questions about the DMV
computer and the company's
troubled $20 million Family Tracs
computer at Clark County Family
Court Services two weeks ago.
There has been no response.
In the wake of the DMV computer
problems, the Sun reported in its
Oct. 15 editions that the Deloitte
and Touche-installed Juvenile
Court computer installed in April
1998 had, among other problems,
difficulties converting records from
the old system and was issuing
duplicate numbers for some
cases.
The glitches affect records that are
kept on both abused and
neglected children and on crimes
committed by juvenile delinquents.
-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), November 02, 1999