Documents obtained by The Cedar Rapids Gazette show Governor Reynolds has signed contracts to pay two companies almost $420 million over the next decade to manage the computers and digital data in state government.
Reynolds announced last week IT services would be outsourced to Cognizant Government Solutions and Amazon Web Services would manage all computer systems and data centers. Reynolds said the deals would save the state over half a billion dollars over the next decade, but the governor did not reveal how much the state would pay the two companies. Public records provided to The Gazette show there was a competitive bidding process for the two contracts, but the deals were processed through a federal agency. Officials told the paper Iowa law lets the state buy goods and services through the federal government’s General Services Administration.
Nearly 200 IT employees are being laid off by the state. The governor said last week that Cognizant has agreed to provide “equal or better employment” to those workers. Union officials who represent the workers say the employees are concerned about losing benefits, like contributions to a state pension.
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