The state Department of Agriculture has not yet entered the technology age.
Thousands of files from tests on milk safety and animal health are still filed manually and kept in paper file folders. There are no electronic files.
“It worked in 1950 and it still works today,” said Wayne Kasacek, assistant director of the department’s Bureau of Regulations and Inspections. “It’s a job that is very paper-intensive and very manual-labor intensive.”
The department’s retro system attracted the notice of the state Auditors of Public Accounts, which recently concluded that the divisions of milk safety and animal health “do not have an effective record keeping and recording system.”
“It’s 2008. It’s not 1998 or 1988,” said auditor Robert Jaekle. “The manual reporting of anything is the exception rather than the rule.”
Bad Business Practice
Jaekle said technology has advanced to the point that not having computerized or automated record keeping is “bad business practice.”
“A lot of what new data collection systems do is make information easily retrievable for reports,” he said. “The current setup is just not conducive to good management.”
Department officials said that the lack of electronic files poses no threat to public health, but they acknowledged that the paper system is cumbersome.
“The problem is when we have to generate reports,” said Bruce Sherman, director of the Bureau of Regulations and Inspections. “Everything’s manually filed so we have to go through everything.”
Efficiency would be improved with a new computer system, since each inspector currently keeps his or her own ledger to document reports.
The department has sought funding from the legislature since 2003 to upgrade the bureau’s technology systems. But its efforts to obtain an appropriation of between $100,000 and $300,000 have not been successful.
