Governor's Bill 6444 on IT Modernization

Department of Administrative (DAS) Services Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe testified today before the Joint Committee on Government Administration & Elections on Governor’s BIll 6444, An Act Concerning the Modernization of State Services.

The bill takes a number of important steps that will improve and modernize State government for residents and provide more support to Connecticut’s businesses. 

The State of Connecticut has already begun a number of significant optimization efforts, and specifically here at DAS that includes IT and HR centralizations, and our launch of business.ct.gov. There are also modernization success stories with our new tax portal at DRS, new online services from DMV and dozens of other projects which will move CT forward with technology and service to our residents.

We understand that people expect to be able to pay for transactions online and sign documents electronically - but there are still some statutory road blocks to adopting these tools in state government.  Here at DAS, we’re excited about the broad range of initiatives in this bill, which if passed, will together make a significant impact on the way we do business in the State of Connecticut.

Among other things, Governor’s Bill 6444 will:

• Reduce red tape in the procurement process without compromising contracting standards;
• Update the outdated definition of “small business” to align with the federal Small Business Administration definition;
• Give the Commissioner discretion to waive competitive bidding in the case of minor or emergency purchases of $10,000 or less, in response to our procurement lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• Allow agencies to “piggyback” not only on other states’ cooperative purchasing plans, but also on those of other Connecticut branches, divisions or departments; and,
• Further Governor Lamont’s Digital Government Initiative by eliminating obstacles to the use of electronic services such as electronic fund transfers and e-signatures.

For those interested, a copy of Commissioner and COO Geballe's testimony can be found here.