Nassau to spend $58M upgrading financial tracking system in place since 1999, comptroller says

Nassau County has entered into a 10-year, $58 million contract signed with a Canadian firm to upgrade its "archaic" internal accounting system aimed at more efficiently tracking its $4.2 billion operating budget, County Comptroller Elaine Phillips said Thursday. 

Phillips said the new "transformational" cloud-based system will be called "Nassau Forward" and replaces the current system, in use since 1999. The operating system will be installed and managed by CGI Group Inc., one of the largest IT and business consulting firms in the world. 

Once the system is operational, Nassau would be caught up with government accounting programs already in place in Suffolk County, New York City and Westchester County. Municipal employees with access across Nassau County government agencies will have the ability to project future expenses and revenues, monitor assets and liabilities and track cashflow in real-time, she said, and there are greater cyber security protections. 

In a Newsday interview, Phillips said the current system is “extremely outdated and no longer meets the county’s needs" because there's no way to upgrade it.  

"I am proud to be leading the charge to replace it with a modern system that will improve virtually every aspect of the county’s financial processes, while also increasing efficiency countywide,” Phillips said. 

Suffolk County, which in 2022 was the target of a government cyber attack, has been using CGI since the mid-1990s and is currently in the middle of an upgrade, according to officials.

Suffolk County Comptroller John Kennedy, who took office in 2015, said he "strongly recommended the program" to Nassau.

He said while the ransomware attack might wind up costing the county as much as $40 million to rectify, "not one penny of public funds was exported, lost or compromised" because of the CGI protections in place. 

Nassau's move comes as the county has an unprecedented amount of funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and a landmark opioid legal settlement in its coffers.

Funding for the CGI contract, however, is part of the county's capital plan, which Republicans and Democrats on the legislature have yet to agree on. Both sides agree the contract is a necessary expense for the county and have approved to borrow $12 million for the contract through 2025. 

Borrowing for the capital projects — which include infrastructure repairs — has been delayed because Democrats, who haven't received funding for projects in their districts, vowed to withhold their votes pending negotiations with Republicans.

A supermajority of 13 votes is needed for county bonding. Republicans hold a 12-7 majority on the county legislature. 

Legis. Seth Koslow (D-Merrick) said essential "life-saving" equipment for first responders, funding for opioid treatment and addiction prevention and a reimbursement program for drivers who paid red-light camera tickets fees down deemed illegal are on the table. He called on Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman to compromise on these funding initiatives. 

A Blakeman spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.