Pittsburgh's clunker of a computer accounting system, which has been sputtering along for a decade and stalled badly in April, had better be on the way to the scrap heap by mid-October if the city wants state approval of its 2010 budget, one of its fiscal overseers said yesterday.

The city has been in talks with Allegheny County and software firm Oracle about putting the city's accounting system on the county's computers. In the past, the ICA has approved city budgets on the condition that the city get its aging, crash-prone system replaced, but it hasn't happened.

"Let's get the negotiations completed," urged Barbara McNees, chair of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, after that five-member board's quarterly meeting. "Let's get to implementation."

"There will not be a budget approval contingent upon the financial management system being in place, again," said ICA Executive Director Henry Sciortino.

City Finance Director Scott Kunka said the city is in talks with the county and Oracle, and that he expects a deal will be in place by mid-October, when the ICA must vote on the city budget. Along with wanting a good price, Mr. Kunka said, the city wants to "push toward sharing of services and consolidation of services" with the county, authorities, and maybe other governments, and it's trying to ensure that it has the right system in place to handle that.

The city has access to $3.5 million earmarked for an accounting system upgrade -- part of the proceeds of the $9 million sale of the Pittsburgh Municipal Courts Building to the state. Mr. Kunka would not say whether Oracle is asking for more than that for a license and services needed to put the city's accounting on the county's computers.

The ICA also approved a $16 million transfer from the city's capital budget to cover expenses related to the G-20 Summit. Most of that will be reimbursed by the state and federal governments, Ms. McNees said.