Computer system cost city millions

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The District has lost between $4 million and $6 million on a mobile computer system for the fire department, the cost of which has swelled as much as sixfold during a year and a half of missed deadlines for implementing it.

D.C. Fire Chief Adrian H. Thompson halted work on the troubled project on Friday after reviewing a progress report about it, department spokesman Alan Etter said yesterday.

The computer project included a global-positioning system to track and dispatch ambulances more effectively while providing them with real-time directions for emergency calls.

It also was designed to convey information from hazardous-materials and medical calls over a private, encrypted network to emergency-room staff, administrators and city agencies and to deliver triage options to first responders.

"It's kind of hard to point to one thing that's been holding this up," said Devin Griffin, head of information technology at the fire department. "It seems like every other time [there's a problem with the system] it's a different issue."

The cost of the project grew from $1 million in October 2002 to between $4 million and $6 million as the software and the modems for the wireless network were found to be incompatible with the fire department's existing computer-assisted dispatch system, fire officials said.

Mr. Griffin, who has overseen the project for the fire department for about a year, said the project's computer hardware already was "behind the curve in technology" when the contract was awarded in 2002.

He said he was not certain what the total cost has been because all contractual issues have been handled by the city's Office of the Chief Technology Officer. OCTO initiated the project and has been involved in a management capacity and holds the funding for the project, Mr. Griffin said.

But Linda Argo, chief of staff for Chief Technology Officer Suzanne Peck, said that the fire department took full control of the project in March and that fire officials should have all the budget numbers.

"We have had nothing to do with that project since March," Miss Argo said. "We have not been involved at all and can't speak to any of the current issues."