The administration awarded a $463 million testing contract to Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group in 1998.

Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group of Pasadena, Calif., has a $488 million contract to operate the state's 32 central inspection stations.

The state paid Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, the private vendor operating the stations, nearly half a billion dollars to administer the new test, beginning Dec. 13.

Moreover, witnesses who testified before the commission this spring said the company that won the contract, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group, had been given advance information during the bidding.

After years of delays and charges of political cronyism, a private contractor, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology, opened its 30 new testing stations last month.

As a result, the state released the money it had withheld from the company, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group of Pasadena, Calif.

"Just as New Jersey had no experience in designing a program, Parsons Infrastructure had no experience in operating one," the report added.

Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Grp.

Officials for the company running the new system, Parsons Infrastructure and Technology, say the problems are a predictable part of starting any new and complicated computer system.

The seven-year contract with Parsons Infrastructure will end up costing $590 million, compared with $339 million, the cost if the state had conducted the inspections itself, the report said.