A government task force examining recent failures in technology projects reported Tuesday that a lack of oversight was the largest contributing factor to gaffes wasting taxpayer dollars.

The Speaker�s Task Force on State Information Technology Failures delivered a letter to Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, outlining its recommendation, the product of research and public input since the task force was commissioned last summer.

�[The task force] was charged with an important assignment: examining what went wrong with recently-failed state IT projects, and determining solutions which would protect taxpayer dollars in the future,� said the task force�s chair, Rep. Phil Montgomery, R-Ashwaubenon, in a statement.

To improve oversight of IT projects, the task force recommended reinstating the defunct Joint Committee on Information Policy and Technology. According to Rep. Louis Molepske, D-Stevens Point, the committee was reinstated in the Senate, and the commission called on Huebsch to do the same in the Assembly.

�Individuals charged with managing computer software projects and the like did not do a very good job transferring their IT project responsibilities and procedures,� Molepske said. �There was no stopgap procedure to keep the data flowing.�

Molepske said the task force spent time looking into projects, including a failed computer payroll system at the University of Wisconsin System that cost $24 million.

�We spent several millions of dollars, and after it was spent, we got nothing,� Molepske said. �There is nothing the taxpayer could look at or hold to see what that money was spent on.�

The letter to the speaker also mentioned some issues had been addressed in the budget, citing provisions �aimed at curbing the culture of mismanagement which facilitated the waste of tax dollars on IT projects.�

Molepske said in addition to lack of oversight, the projects had been plagued with overspending.

�It is my hope that the failures in the past would not be repeated and that there would be executive sponsors of all those projects and the projects will be closely monitored, � and there will be protocol put in place if the bills coming due are greater than were expected,�

Molepske said.

However, Molepske said past problems had gone as far back as the time of Tommy Thompson�s governorship.

�You can�t really point the finger at one governor or Department of Administration head,� he said.