David Bullard puts OMES on notice over misleading fiscal statement

OKLAHOMA CITY – Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, on Tuesday said the Office of Management and Enterprise Services lied about the cost of his bill to streamline government by having state agencies provide information technology services in-house.

In a meeting of the Senate Retirement and Government Resources Committee, Bullard, the committee’s chair, took OMES to task for the agency’s fiscal impact statement on Senate Bill 179. Bullard’s bill would eliminate the Information Services Division within OMES and make state agencies responsible for their own IT services.

OMES estimated uncoupling IT services would require 600 new, full-time employees and cost up to $586 million in the first year of the bill’s implementation and up to $1.7 billion over five years to no longer do the service.

“OMES is trying to deceive the Legislature and Oklahoma taxpayers with this illogical and obviously misleading financial estimate,” Bullard said. “They are using scare tactics to avoid scrutiny, while any reasonable person understands that an agency wouldn’t need 600 new employees to eliminate one service. I’m putting OMES on notice over this egregious behavior.

“If this incident has accomplished anything, it has reinforced my firm belief that state agencies can handle their own IT services more efficiently and at a fraction of the cost of what OMES charges. It’s unacceptable behavior like this that makes me believe our state and our government agencies would be better off without OMES gumming up the works.”

-END-

For more information, contact: Sen. David Bullard at (405) 521-5586 or David. Bullard@oksenate.gov