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A few years ago, the General Assembly and then-Gov. Mark Warner worked out the deal creating the Virginia Information Technologies Agency to take care of the details.
The commonwealth would pay $2 billion over 10 years to military-contracting titan Northrop Grumman. In return, the company would modernize state computer systems, manage them and become the information technology provider across all of state government.
Grumbling began almost immediately. Many state agencies complained the company provided poor service and charged too much for it.
Things only came to a head, though, when a hacker broke into a state medical database in April.
Personal information about Virginians, including Social Security numbers, might have been compromised. That got lawmakers interested.
Then last month the head of VITA was fired after he threatened to withhold payment from the company because it had not delivered.
So lawmakers convened this week to find out what has been going on. They discovered it's even worse than anyone knew.
The company has missed deadlines and failed to complete an inventory of information resources. Doctors are worried about writing prescriptions because the hacked database remains disabled. The board that oversees VITA has been holding secret meetings with the company, perhaps in violation of state law. And that fired VITA head? He was canned because the state didn't want to make waves with Northrop Grumman.
We disagree with Salem Republican and House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith on many things, but on Monday he perfectly summed up the astonishing depth of the problem.
"I thought there was going to be smoke. I didn't know there was going to be a forest fire," he said.
VITA, feeling the heat, on Tuesday even admitted that Northrop Grumman is in breach of contract and now demands the company come up with a plan to rectify the situation.
That's a start, but if things are this bad, canceling the contract and starting over might be the best solution.
Lawmakers must continue to press on this issue and demand answers from the information technology chiefs who were supposed to ensure taxpayers' resources were managed properly.
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