The FI$Cal project is now a standalone department within state government, but its leader remains the same.
The Brown administration announced on Monday that Miriam Barcellona Ingenito has been appointed the director of the Department of FI$Cal. She has been the executive partner of the project since 2015.
The announcement came the same day as the governor announced he signed the 2016-17 state budget. The Brown administration proposed that the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) become its own department earlier this year, in part to adapt as it moves away from strictly being an IT project to becoming a service-oriented, customer-focused organization.
In May, Ingenito, told a State Senate budget subcommittee that FI$Cal is in a transition period right now, fulfilling departmental functions simultaneously alongside typical IT project functions, such as design and development.
FI$Cal is creating centralized financial platform for the state, streamlining 2,500 legacy financial systems used across more than 120 departments. Approved in 2005, the system was initially projected to cost $1.6 billion but later was revised down to $672 million. The current estimate is about $910 million.
Ingenito was chief deputy director at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control from 2013 to 2015, deputy secretary for environmental policy and community programs at the California Environmental Protection Agency from 2011 to 2013 and deputy director of legislation at the California Department of Finance from 2009 to 2011, according to the governor's office. She served as principal consultant for the California State Senate Committee on Appropriations from 2001 to 2009, assistant to the secretary for policy and program analysis at the California Resources Agency from 1999 to 2001 and fiscal and policy analyst in the California Legislative Analyst’s Office from 1997 to 1999.
Ingenito's position as the FI$Cal Department Director requires confirmation by the State Senate. Her salary is $166,596.
