A Northbridge constituent recently wrote to Senator Moore, applauding the Senator for his efforts in streamlining government services, but pointing out two areas of duplicative services: one with the Vendor Compliance Office, and the other with the state QUEST system for wage reporting and payment of the employer state unemployment tax.  After receiving the e mail, Senator Moore followed up with the State Purchasing Agent, to find out how these particular services may be streamlined.  Stay posted for a response in the near future.  In the meantime, view the constituent's comments below:

---

From: A Northbridge Constituent
To: Senator Moore

Dear Senator Moore:

I know you are interested in saving taxpayer money by eliminating wasteful government spending. I have two current examples.

I am the controller of a small business that sells food to some of the Massachusetts prisons. It is a monthly bid process. It is about as basic a business transaction as there can be. The prison kitchen places the order, we deliver it, get our invoice signed, leave one copy with the prison and bring the signed copy back to our accounting office. The prison accounting office does their part and we get paid electronically with all the remittance information available online via the VendorWeb site, which is an outstanding site that is simple and very user-friendly. If problems arise, such as unpaid invoices or unused credits, a phone call or email to the respective account will take care of the problem.

I have been getting requests by the "Vendor Compliance Office" of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for almost a year now. They request detailed open invoice statements for each account every quarter. This requires a substantial amount of work to reproduce these documents and put them into an electronic form which will suit the Vendor Compliance Office. Due to the economic downturn, I have had to reduce my office staff by 50%, yet the Commonwealth appears to have only increased theirs to do a job that should already have been done the first time by the respective departments. I have never had any problems with the prisons and their accounting departments. They appear to do their job efficiently and effectively. To make matters worse, while I am on the phone with the employee of the Vendor Compliance Office, I am listening to constant laughing and joking going on in the background.

The second example of wasteful spending is the QUEST system for wage reporting and payment of the employer state unemployment taxes. This is a system that was started for the 4th quarter of 2009 and was full of software problems, which still have not been corrected. Why anyone would decide to change a system during a year is insane. The additional work required by small businesses to use this QUEST system was amazing. Nothing from the previous three quarters of 2009 carried into the system, requiring all employee information to be manually input again. The system also did not carry forward any of the information into the first quarter of 2010 either, once again requiring all the data to be manually input. Additional time was required to reconcile the year end amounts, since two systems were used in the same year, with nothing carrying over to the new system. The QUEST system also would not allow the quarterly payment to be made on the actual due date - it had to be paid the day you input the information or you had to go back on the due date and process the payment. All of these extra steps and manually inputting information costs small businesses money and time, which they do not have in this economy. The previous system used was "Webfile for Business" which worked great - it was quick, easy, and the previous quarter information carried forward each quarter. I can only imagine the cost to taxpayers for the programming and other fees to create the QUEST system and for no real benefit that I can see.

I thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

A Northbridge Constituent

---

From: Senator Moore
To: State Purchasing Agent

May 17, 2010

Ellen Bickelman
State Purchasing Agent

Dear Ms. Bickelman:

Recently, a constituent contacted me regarding two issues that are affecting his small business: detailed invoices required by the Vendor Compliance Office, and the QUEST system for wage reporting. 

As the owner of a small business that sells food to several Massachusetts prisons, my constituent has indicated that the Massachusetts Vendor Compliance Office requests detailed invoices for each financial Quarter, reflecting prison kitchens’ orders and the services rendered by my constituent’s company. While this appears to be a standard operating procedure, my constituent has indicated that each of the prisons’ respective accounting offices keep track of these transactions as well, providing him with a copy of the business deal. As a result, the requests from the Vendor Compliance Office appear duplicative in nature, and given the current state of our economic affairs in the Commonwealth, my constituent has had to reduce his staff size to 50%--making the Vendor Compliance Office requests even more burdensome for his business. 

In addition to the Vendor Compliance Office requests, my constituent also brought forth a concern about the QUEST system for wage reporting, which was introduced in the 4th Quarter of 2009. It appears that the system has been beleaguered with technical difficulties and has required employees to input information that was not covered before its introduction, meaning that the other three financial Quarters of 2009 had to be manually added by employees. 

Furthermore, there was justified frustration with the system when the First Quarter of 2010 began, and no financial information from 2009 was carried over through the new QUEST system—requiring my constituent and his respective staff members to repeat the same procedure that they had faced merely months earlier, and which ultimately cost my constituent unnecessary dollars for the time his limited staff had to devote to this operation.

I would respectfully ask that the case of the Massachusetts Vendor Compliance Office invoices be further reviewed to ensure that its requests are not duplicative with the work that is already accomplished by the state prisons’ accounting offices. 

I also respectfully ask that I may receive a further explanation of the QUEST system’s technological challenges, and how individuals like my constituent may be better able to manage their wage reporting when the system has consistently required the re-entry of information that was already inputted to begin with.

I look forward to your response and appreciate your attention on this matter.

Sincerely,

Senator Richard T. Moore