The state Senate has passed a $929 million information technology bond bill, including amendments aimed at improving oversight of costly computer-system upgrades.
“This legislation will help modernize the state’s technology infrastructure while enacting the reforms needed to help protect taxpayers against expensive and broken IT projects,” said senator Brian A. Joyce, a Milton democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Bonding.
The bill would increase coordination, planning and centralization of IT systems and would create an oversight committee to review projects.
A series of Globe stories last year detailed significant problems with technology contracts at the state’s Division of Unemployment Assistance, the Department of Revenue and the Massachusetts Health Connector.
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The Globe also found that a single vendor, Deloitte Consulting had dominated large IT contracts with the state for years, winning more than $330 million worth over a decade. Deloitte maintains that it won the contracts fairly and performed the work in good faith.
But the new bond bill establishes best practices for project procurement, including narrowing the scope of projects so they can be more flexible and smaller companies and compete for the business.
The bill also requires the Executive Office of Administration and Finance to issue regulations on the hiring of former employees of information technology vendors for management positions in the executive branch. Two former Deloitte executives held positions overseeing their one-time employer.
The bond bill would also save taxpayers an estimated $272 million, according to Joyce, by reducing bond terms.
The Senate and House bills go next to a conference committee to produce a compromise bill.
Beth Healy can be reached at beth.healy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @HealyBeth.