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OMV system that never came to fruition still costing taxpayers money

4 years 2 months 2 weeks ago Wednesday, January 08 2020 Jan 8, 2020 January 08, 2020 5:46 PM January 08, 2020 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Nearly a decade after state officials pulled the plug on a failed system that was supposed to streamline things at the Office of Motor Vehicles, taxpayers are still on the hook for it.

Five years ago, the WBRZ Investigative Unit exposed contracts where the state spent at least $66 million on the NGMV or Next Generation of Motor Vehicles System that was supposed to link up the system to allow users to renew driver's licenses and vehicle registration.

"We were well into it, and there was nothing to show for it, so I was not going to spend another dollar on a project that was not producing any results," former Colonel of State Police Mike Edmonson said in 2015.

In 2008, Edmonson ditched the project. The case is now tied up in court, where a judge ruled Unisys was owed money for work that was underway when the contract was terminated.

As part of the strategic plan for 2020, the state is trying to move away from the Unisys system. It says that the system is obsolete and charges high maintenance fees.

Courts ruled Unisys was owed about $1.3 million from work that was being done at the time the contract was canceled. That money has not been paid.

The judge ruled interest could be charged for each day it's not paid.

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