ST. PAUL – An independent investigative report was recently released to outline all of the problems surrounding MNLARS, Minnesota’s licensing and registration system, and the results were troubling according to State Representative Jason Rarick (R-Pine City).
“There’s just a complete lack of management from top to bottom on this,” Rarick said. “It exposes many things we need to get a grip on and make our state agencies accountable for the way they operate with our tax dollars.”
Earlier this year a KMSP-TV story suggested the Dayton administration ignored several warning signs and rolled out the new system despite knowledge that it would not function properly. Minnesota has already spent more than $100 million on MNLARS, and officials readily admit it is “half-built.”
On April 10, members of the Minnesota House Transportation Finance and State Government Finance committees questioned MNLARS officials as well as MN.IT, the state’s IT agency about the continued failures. Rarick was troubled by the attempt to blame MN.IT’s former chief business technology officer as the biggest problem.
“He’s the scapegoat and I’m convinced the problems go much deeper,” Rarick said. “I have no doubt he was at fault, but I highly doubt he was the only one to blame as there has been a systematic failure throughout the entire agency.”