Agency: ISF - Technology Services

Function

The Department of Technology Services (DTS) acts as Utah's central service provider for information technology (IT) related activities. While the Legislature appropriates a part of the DTS budget, the other part is financed by billing customer agencies. This chapter addresses that latter portion of DTS, the Internal Service Fund (ISF) portion.

Internal Service Funds employ business practices to provide a service or product for other state and governmental agencies. They take advantage of economies of scale, avoid duplication of efforts, and provide an accounting mechanism to adequately identify costs of certain governmental services.

The DTS Internal Service Fund contains two programs: Agency Services and Enterprise Technology.

Statutory Authority

The following statutes govern the Department of Technology Services Internal Service Fund:

• UCA 63F-1-103 creates the Department of Technology Services and gives DTS authority to operate as an internal service fund
• UCA 63F-1-301 creates an Information Technology Rate Committee that reviews and approves all rates before they are charged by DTS. The rate committee forwards such rates to the Legislature for final authorization
• UCA 63J-1-410, the 'Budgetary Procedures Act,' defines internal service funds and sets guidelines for their operations

In order to control the size, mission, and fees charged to state agencies, the Legislature imposed statutory controls ( UCA 63J-1-410 ) that require ISFs to respond to the legislative budget process. No ISF can bill another agency for its services unless the Legislature has: approved the ISF's budget request, FTE, capital acquisitions, rates, fees, and other charges; published the annual rates and fees in an appropriations act; and appropriated the ISF's estimated revenue.

To eliminate negative working capital, an ISF may borrow from the General Fund as long as the debt is repaid over the useful life of the asset and the deficit working capital is greater than ninety percent of the value of the ISF's fixed assets.

Funding Detail

Consolidation of the former Department of Administrative Service Division of Information Technology Services (ITS) into DTS began in FY 2006. In FY 2007 all state agency information technology employees transferred from state agencies into the Agency Services program within DTS.