New Jersey Finally Cancels $118 Million Social Welfare Computer System
We end this year’s IT Hiccups of the Week series much like how we began it, with yet another expensive, incompetently managed, and ultimately out-of-control U.S. state government IT project spiraling into abject failure. This one involves the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ six-year, $118.3 million Consolidated Assistance Support System (CASS). It was supposed to modernize the management of the state’s social welfare programs, but it was CASS itself that was in dire need of assistance.
The Department of Human Services decided to announce that it had pulled the project’s plug over the Thanksgiving holiday—no doubt to try to reduce the bad publicity involved while people were enjoying their much-easier-to-swallow, non-IT turkey. A DHS spokesperson would not explain why the CASS contract was terminated; her only related comment made to a NJ.com reporter was that “an analysis is in progress to determine next steps.”
Hewlett-Packard, which was the CASS project prime contractor (the contract was originally awarded to EDS in 2007; HP acquired the firm in 2008), was equally mum on the subject. However, an HP spokesperson did seem to hint strongly that any and all project problems were the fault of New Jersey’s DHS, when he stated that, “Out of respect, HP does not comment on customer relationships.”
More: New Jersey Finally Cancels $118 Million Social Welfare Computer System - IEEE Spectrum