VITA contract is six months late, says official

I certainly do not intend to defend Mark Warner, but the reality is that Kaine, the Oversight Board, and General Assembly cannot and should not be allowed to escape blame simply because the contract began during Warner’s administration. It is a continuing contract, and each successive Governor, Technology Secretary, Oversight Board, and General Assembly should be held accountable by Virginia taxpayers until the contract is either (a) satisfactorily concluded or (b) Northrop-Grummann is replaced for cause, assessed financial penalties for their failures, and the project successfully concluded by Northrop-Grumann’s successor.

Notice how there is no mention in the article about this program being started under Gov. Mark Warner. Also, notice that the leftist Jeff Schapiro is a co-author of the article and a BIG BIG supporter of Mark Warner, even while Warner was lying to and looting Virginia taxpayers. When are the editors of the TD going to stand up for unbiased journalism, instead of following leftist rags like the NY Times and the Washington Post. If the Editors continue to allow Jeff, and other leftist reporters, to lead the TD it is going to end up in the same garbage pail as the NY Times and Washington Post….Richmond DESERVES better

There are a number of disclosures in the report on the basis of which every Virginia taxpayer should be livid! Here are four examples:

1 “Kaine, who has defended the VITA-Northrop Grumman alliance, said through spokesman Gordon Hickey that he is deferring to the board that oversees the agency to set right the contract. That board is made up of gubernatorial and legislative appointees.“

2 “Speaking before a House committee that questioned whether Northrop Grumman is failing to fulfill its obligations under the state’s richest-ever privatization pact, Pomata said “service levels, in general, are below expectations.“

3.“James W. McGuirk II, chairman of the VITA board, said in a letter Friday to Del. Samuel A. Nixon Jr., R-Chesterfield, an IT expert and head of the House Republican Caucus, that Stewart was removed “to avoid a major rift in the program with Northrop Grumman.“

4. Pomata, who also is Kaine’s secretary of technology, said he had not determined how using the power of the purse would affect service.“

On the basis of the four circumstances cited above, a reasonable person can only conclude the following:

A. Despite his earlier remark that the CIO should report directly to the Governor, Kaine is attempting to “wash his hands” of the matter by abdicating his responsibility to the Oversight Board of gubernatorial and General Assembly appointees who have already demonstrated their unwillingness or inability to adequately supervise Northrop-Grumann and enforce specific performance under the contract.

b. By Pomata’s own admission service levels do not meet expectations, yet nothing is being done to force Northrop-Grumman to provide required levels of service - and Pomata doesn’t understand how using the power of the purse can influence NG.  That being true Pomata has no business being the Secretary of Technology. Is Pomata afraid of retaliation or further slow-downs by Northrop-Grumann if payment is withheld?
Exactly what influence over Kaine, Pomata, and the General Assembly was “purchased” by campaign contributions and what threats might Northrop-Grumann have made if their performance is challenged?
c. Steward was fired for doing his job so that there would not be a “rift with Northrop-Grumann”. Clearly, NG is in the drivers seat and dictating what contractual obligations they will meet, when, and how. This suggests that the Attorney General needs to be involved immediately to begin a legal action on behalf of the Commonwealth to enforce specific performance by NG under the contract and extract penalties for their failures to comply.

You just can not make this stuff up.  First, it was determined that the state could not effectively manage its own IT resources so it was decided to outsource it.  Then the state expected to be able to manage the contractor with internal resources that they had already acknowledged could not effectively manage its own in-house IT resources.  They now have a lame duck governor, who received political contributions from the contractor, saying that there might be a few bumps in the road but everything is still ok.  Couple all this with Kaine’s appointed IT Secretary saying that he doesn’t see how holding back contract money would get the contractor’s attention just highlights why this position should not be a political appointment in the first place.  And finally, did I mention that Kaine fired the only person who not only knew what was going but also knew how to get the contractor’s attention to fix it?  Like I said, you just can not make this stuff up.  But then again, can you expect much more when you are dealing with a part-time governor who is looking past his present position.

I was in the IT field almost 30 years as a programmer, analyst and project manager.  I’ve seen things like this and there is no excuse for it.  I ran a big project in Washington and it finished ahead of schedule and under budget.  I’d love to get back into dp and kick some butt in upper management at vita and ng and get this show back on the road.  And get the stress and strain off of the employees where I’m sure it’s being dumped.  Most of my work however was with private enterprise though I did work with government.  But no matter who you work with there is no excuse for shoddy, mismanaged work.  No wonder companies are outsourcing work to other countries.  We need to get our act together!