(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) Communication and information resources in the various agencies of state government are valuable strategic assets belonging to the people of Colorado that must be managed accordingly;

(a.5) It is imperative that the long-term sustainability and eventual retirement of information technology systems be considered when initiating a major information technology project and that project plans include the various components that will result in project success;

(b) Technological and theoretical advances in the area of communication and information use are recent in origin, immense in scope and complexity, and progressing rapidly;

(c) The nature of these advances presents Colorado with the opportunity to provide higher quality, more timely, and more cost-effective governmental services;

(d) Agencies independently acquire uncoordinated and duplicative information resource technologies that are more appropriately acquired as part of a coordinated effort for maximum cost effectiveness and use;

(e) The sharing of communication and information resource technologies among agencies is often the most cost-effective method of providing the highest quality and most timely governmental services that would otherwise be cost prohibitive;

(f) Considerations of both cost and the need for the transfer of information among the various agencies and branches of state government in the most timely and useful form possible require a uniform policy and coordinated system for the use and acquisition of communication and information resource technologies; and

(g) It is the policy of this state to coordinate and direct the use of communication and information resources technologies by state agencies and to provide as soon as possible the most cost-effective and useful retrieval and exchange of information both within and among the various state agencies and branches of government and from the state agencies and branches of government to the people of Colorado. To that end, the office of information technology is created.