North Carolina

Last July, North Carolina abolished its Information Resources Management Commission. Most citizens didn’t notice, but the move shocked people in information technology circles because the commission was once considered a national model. The year before, it was nominated for an award from the National Association of State Chief Information Officers for its ability to monitor major IT projects and initiatives.

The truth is, though, the commission looked far better from a distance. The powers it held weakened the information technology office without setting up an effective alternative decision-making body. Its laudably diverse membership — including politicians and vendors — caused it to be resistant to making hard choices. “IT operations require executive decision making and leadership,” says Jonathan Womer, assistant state budget officer for information technology. “The IRMC had the authority but didn’t have the will.” Result: When the state ran into an unexpected series of IT disasters — including a faulty payroll system for its community colleges and a troubled student information system in its public schools — the shortcomings of the commission were exposed.

The state’s leadership is now acknowledging a passel of IT problems that it wants to correct. These include a proliferation of duplicative systems, multiple legacy applications that need to be replaced and weak project management skills at the agency level. With the Information Resources Management Commission gone, state CIO George Bakolia has more power to tackle these issues in partnership with the Office of Budget and Management. Over the summer, a new project-approval process was put in place that requires agencies to outline their business needs when they ask for money for an IT project. “It’s hard to properly evaluate an IT system without a business context to it,” says Womer. “The value isn’t how long it’s up and running or how many bits it processes but what performance value it gives to the business operation.”

Money B- Long-Term Outlook Budget Process Structural Balance Contracting/Purchasing Financial Controls/Reporting People C+ Strategic Workforce Planning Hiring Retaining Employees Training and Development Managing Employee Performance Infrastructure C+ Capital Planning Project Monitoring Maintenance Internal Coordination Intergovernmental Coordination Information C+ Strategic Direction Budgeting for Performance Managing for Performance Program Evaluation Electronic Government • Population (rank): 8,049,313 (11) • Average per capita income (rank):    $28,235 (37) • Total state spending (rank):    $33,123,528,000 (10) • Spending per capita (rank):    $3,988 (34) • Governor: Michael Easley (D) • First elected: 11/2000 • Senate: 50 members: 29 D, 21 R • Term Limits: None • House: 120 members: 63 D, 57 R • Term Limits: None

This is a good idea. Unfortunately, the state’s avowed goal of tying its information technology in with broader statewide goals may be doomed. North Carolina has systematically dismantled much of its strategic planning apparatus in the past three years. The Progress Board still looks at future needs, but about 25 percent of the analytic capacity of the budget office was eliminated, including the entire planning unit. At the same time, the legislature also abolished existing requirements for performance budgeting. “I wish I could sit here and put a rosy picture on it,” says Charles Perusse, the deputy budget director. “It’s one of those things where formally it’s not being done in our office anymore.”

A shortage of money, time and staff have impacted other areas of North Carolina management as well. Legislation was passed in the late 1990s that required the governor to send the legislature a multiyear capital plan, but in recent years this hasn’t happened. There is a process for reviewing the capital needs of state facilities, but the disconnect between needs and dollars available to meet them has put a pall on the effort. When it comes to fiscal management, the state does credible projections reasonably far out into the future, but so far it has been reluctant to deal with serious problems ahead of time, so merely knowing about them is of limited value.

It seems like there’s a cloud inside every silver lining in North Carolina. The state personnel office, for example, has a lot of ambitious and creative ideas for reform of its unwieldy job classifications. This includes a “competency-based” approach in which a detailed set of skills would be attached to each job classification and would carry through to all aspects of human resource management — hiring, training, evaluation and promotion. But will it actually come to pass anytime soon? Good question. “We’re really in a big effort to improve human resources,” says Gary Wiggins, HR managing partner. “We’re having trouble doing that because of our staff reduction. Things have not moved along as quickly as we wished.”

For additional data and analysis, go to: http://results.gpponline.org/northcarolina

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