Breaking: FL CFO Sink suspends Jeb Bush's Project Aspire $100 Million contract

TALLAHASSEE -- Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink today pulled the plug on one of the three big state outsourcing projects that has already cost the state $89 million and not delivered as promised.

Sink said she decided to suspend "Project Aspire," a much-delayed financial management system that was started in Gov. Jeb Bush's administration. The vendor, BearingPoint, pulled out of the Aspire contract last December and the state had not sought a replacement company.

Sink said the state spent $89 million on Project Aspire, with no end in sight.

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Gov. Charlie Crist and Sink included Aspire among the major privatization and service contracting initiatives assigned to the new Council on Efficient Government, created by the 2006 Legislature in response to various delivery and cost problems in Bush's outsourcing efforts. The other two are MyFloridaMarketplace, the automated purchasing system, and People First, the problem-plagued state personnel privatization and online system.

"We need to stop spending the people's tax dollars until we have a clear strategy in place to make the project a success," Sink said of Project Aspire.

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