Claudette Farrington, the former Bureau of Internal Revenue director, will have to appear before the Senate Finance Committee after all to answer questions relating to Bureau of Internal Revenue operations during her tenure.
The committee is expected to resume its inquiry Wednesday into operations of the bureau with Farrington's testimony headlining the agenda.
The committee has spent two days so far reviewing operations and changes that have been implemented since July 5 when Gov. Charles W. Turnbull removed Farrington from the directorship, replacing her with Louis Willis. Farrington was transferred to the budget office as a special assistant to Director Ira Mills at her same $65,000-a-year salary.
Willis and 20 other supervisors spoke this week of ongoing problems with computer operations despite testimony that more than $700,000 was spent in the last year overhauling computer systems.
"Much of the work is still being done by hand, about 67 percent," said one employee, leading committee Chairwoman Lorraine Berry to remark, "We'll just have to bring in the former director. We need the answer and we need to protect our integrity too."
Much of the focus Friday was on the Bureau's doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to an off-island consulting company, Independent Consulting Services, ICS, to make the BIR systems Y2K compliant. At the end of the day, it was unclear whether the firm had made any headway. The company had agreed to correct tax data in income taxes, gross receipts and wage information systems. The contract, signed by Farrington, included ICS inputting 2.5 million lines of data into the system.
Computer Operations Director Granville Smith testified that the system is not working and has never been fully operational.
Adding graphic testimony to Smith's statement, Sen. Adelbert M. Bryan produced several photographs of the IRB offices blown up on the Senate's slide projector. The photos showed offices with computers lying dormant and stacks of papers awaiting processing.
One room held several boxes of unopened IBM computer monitors. Another showed a large desk totally obliterated by boxes of papers. Bryan asked Willis, "Isn't this your office? How do you work in there?"
Willis said it was a project he had been trying to sort out.
The contract between ICS and the bureau was reviewed for legal sufficiency by the Justice Department rather than by two associate counsels at the BIR. St. Thomas BIR attorney Tamara Parsons-Smalls testified that her only involvement was in typing the contract. Her St. Croix counterpart, Gizette Canegata, told senators she had no involvement in the contract with ICS.
Willis cited the need for additional training on the computer system for bureau employees. "The only person who can provide that training is the woman who created the software for the bureau. I have tracked her down in California and will make arrangements for her to come to the territory to train the staff," he said.
The discussions on the BIR operations and its problems will resume Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Early B. Ottley Legislative Chambers.
