Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Lawmakers Request Auditor General to Examine Pennsylvania Statewide Radio System Project

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 13:40:59 -0400

Rep. Pat Browne
                                                         131st District
                                  Pennsylvania House of Representatives
                                                         (610) 435-3854
                                                         (717) 787-6572
                                                      www.repbrowne/com

                                                   Contact: Len Bennett
                                        House Republican Communications
                                                          (717) 787-3993

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2004

              Lawmakers Request Auditor General to Examine
              Pennsylvania Statewide Radio System Project
          Rep. Browne asks for assistance from Administration Secretary
                                 Barnett

HARRISBURG - Rep. Pat Browne (R-Lehigh and Northampton) is calling on
Auditor General Robert Casey to review and audit an 8-year-old project
to implement a statewide radio system.

"State, county and local governments are projected to invest $400
million in a statewide 800 megahertz (Mhz) public safety radio system to
link first responders," Browne said.

Browne said completion of the system is mired in delays, unanticipated
costs, and may not cover the entire state.

About three weeks ago, Browne and Rep. Kelly Lewis (R-Monroe and Pike)
asked the Office of Auditor General to investigate the total
expenditures to date, the forecasted costs to totally complete the
system, the projected completion date, and just how many Pennsylvanians
the system will protect when finished.

Browne has also written to the state Secretary of Administration Robert
Barnett asking for his assistance with the audit request.

Since its enactment in 1996, the General Assembly has approved $222
million in funding for the system - an initial capital budget
expenditure of $179 million and a subsequent infusion of $43 million in
1999. The original project deadline was April 2001. Additional annual
appropriations for the last 11 fiscal years total more than $27 million,
which includes a proposed $6.434 million for fiscal year 2004-2005. This
continuing line item has been funded at this level from the General Fund
and Motor License Fund since the 2002-2003 fiscal year and has risen
incrementally since seed money was included in the budget as early as
the 1994-1995 budget.

Page 2

Both the director of the radio project office under the Governor's
Office of Administration and director of Pennsylvania Emergency
Management Agency (PEMA) have testified that current project costs
exceed $400 million.

"A project of this importance, scope and size should be an auditing
priority by the auditor general and a key focus of the administration,"
Browne said.

In 1996, a statewide radio system was envisioned to replace a
25-year-old system that used incompatible equipment, meaning
departments, agencies, counties and local governments were unable to
effectively communicate in an emergency.

Originally, 198 towers and data communications sites were proposed, with
compact, unobtrusive microcell base stations providing supplementary
coverage. Presently, the project has evolved into a "hybrid" system now
encompassing 240 high-profile towers and over 700 low-profile "micro
sites" (such as utility poles, rooftops etc.) to fill in coverage gaps
from high-profile sites.

"The system was to have been completed April 2001, five years after the
project was funded in 1996," Browne said. "We are now three years beyond
the time frame originally projected for the system's full deployment."

Browne said with full House debate scheduled to begin this week on a
budget for the Commonwealth, this is an appropriate time for
Pennsylvania state government to attest to the financial facts and
circumstances involved in the statewide radio project.

"Given the project's current and projected cost and uncertain completion
timetable, an audit and financial forecast will provide Pennsylvania
citizens with a detailed analysis of costs incurred and projected to be
incurred by the Commonwealth and its counties and municipalities in
order to fully deploy this system," Browne said.