Poor planning and bungling by the Department of Education led a $3.6 million contract for a computerized enrollment system to balloon to more than $23 million — more than six times its original cost, the city Comptroller’s Office said yesterday.
The plans to design a complex high-school admissions system were changed eight times since 2001 — leading to the DOE shelling out an additional $10 million to the vendor, Spherion.
The company, whose contract ran through 2009, was connected to the CityTime payroll fiasco — a project whose price tag catapulted from $68 million to more than $700 million — using subcontractors now accused of stealing millions.
Spherion was not cited for wrongdoing in the enrollment-system case.
In 2008, city officials added a second vendor to the project — Vanguard — that was given an additional $9.5 million to overhaul, expand and improve the enrollment system through 2013.
“DOE’s contract amendments appear to be an admission that the changes that occurred in DOE were not expected or considered in developing [the system],” Deputy Comptroller Tina Kim wrote this week in a letter to Schools Chancellor Cathie Black.
“Clearly savings could have been achieved with better planning and coordination.”
DOE officials said costs have grown largely because the system, which is operational, expanded beyond its initial function as solely a high-school admissions system to include enrollment functions for pre-kindergarten, middle schools and gifted and talented programs.