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GCN Home > 05/17/04 issue

FBI overhauls Virtual Case File contract

By Wilson P. Dizard III, GCN Staff

GAO probes Trilogy cost increases, delays and security as CIO Azmi seeks performance-based deal

The FBI’s new CIO is looking for a new deal on the bureau’s systems modernization project.

Zalmai Azmi, who had been acting CIO, said the bureau is renegotiating its contract with Science Applications International Corp. to resolve differences over the future of the Virtual Case File, a major piece of the Trilogy modernization program.

During a May 7 meeting with reporters at FBI headquarters, Azmi said the bureau is seeking to rework its cost-plus-award-fee contracts with SAIC and prime contractor Computer Sciences Corp. The FBI is negotiating a new, performance-based contract.

Also that day, lawmakers announced that the General Accounting Office is investigating the VCF project at the request of House Judiciary Committee chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) and the committee’s ranking minority member, John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.).

In a May 7 statement, Sensenbrenner noted that Trilogy has been extended from an original 36-month schedule to a 48-month schedule.

“I have been a strong supporter of the VCF and Trilogy because the FBI cannot fight 21st century terrorists and criminals with 1960s technology and processes,” Sensenbrenner said. “I have asked for a meeting with FBI director [Robert Mueller III] as soon as possible because I want to be assured that there will be no more unpleasant surprises about Trilogy.”

The bureau also is trying to prevent further problems by renegotiating its modernization deals. “They [SAIC] have promised cost sharing,” Azmi said of the vendor for the delayed, over-budget VCF project. “There will be a contract with earned value management that will be performance-based.”

No estimate

Azmi did not offer an estimate of how much the delays in the Trilogy project have increased its cost. But he did say the project has not yet exhausted the $581 million allocated for its completion.

He plans a phased deployment of VCF that will bring parts of the system up by the end of the year.

As Azmi reins in the Trilogy project, he is also expanding his authority over other systems projects. He said he recently sent a memo to FBI workers informing them “that all IT projects and investments must go through my office.”