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Gov.-Elect Sonny Perdue Names Georgia's First Chief Operating Officer

A private-sector executive has been recruited for the new post, and one of his first priorities could well be the state's troubled $1.8 billion telecom-outsourcing project.

ATLANTA -- Gov.-elect Sonny Perdue has recruited former Bank of America executive Jim Lientz to fill the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer for the state.

"Jim Lientz is an outstanding addition to our team," Perdue said, in a statement. "State government should be a customer-friendly, people focused organization. Jim's experience in the private sector will help translate that vision into a reality, creating a new organizational structure for our state. His willingness to step forward and share his unique set of private sector experiences to the state demonstrates the depth of bench talent on the 'New Georgia Team.'"

The COO position will be charged with creating a customer friendly, people-oriented state government through the leadership, management and supervision of state departments, agencies, and their respective boards and commissions.

"The new Georgia will put people before politics," Perdue said. "We must develop our state employees, identifying talent and developing career paths, in order to provide better service to our customers, the citizens of Georgia."

A native of Savannah, Ga., James "Jim" Lientz began his career in the financial services industry in 1968, following graduation from Georgia Tech and two years of service in the United States Army. Lientz also served as chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber in 2000 and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce in 1998.

It is likely that one of the pressing issues Lientz will address is the state's massive telecom-outsourcing project, introduced by then-Gov. Roy Barnes and orchestrated by the state's ex-CIO, Larry Singer, who formally unveiled the project in 2001.

The project has encountered several pitfalls -- including the state's discounting the bid of WorldCom due to the company's bankruptcy filing -- and the recent decision by IBM to remove its bid on the project.

Perdue's spokeswoman told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the outsourcing project has been put on hold, though a spokeswoman of the Georgia Technology Authority also told the paper that she expects a decision to be reached very soon, perhaps within a week, about the status of the project.

Currently, only one bidder, a consortium called ConnectGA and comprised of Atlanta-based BellSouth, AT&T and EDS, remains for the outsourcing project.