Disputed $13 million state IT bill was paid
The roughly $13 million bill that state computer czar Lemuel Stewart disputed before being fired from that position has been paid.
The payment to Northrop Grumman was authorized by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency's acting chief information officer on June 22 -- and not in accordance with internal financial controls, according to Senate Finance Committe staff.
That was just days before the VITA contract manager Fred Duball notified Northrop Grumman in a June 30 letter that the company was in breach of contract.
A Senate Finance subcommittee is looking into the performance of VITA and Northrop Grumman as it relates to the state's IT services.
-- Olympia Meola
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Just in case some of you folks don’t understand the working of Virginia’s state government, the real power of the Governor lies in the fact he makes over 3000 appointments to oversee the operations of all the various departments and boards.
Seems to me that Tim Kain’s finger prints are all over this. He is the ultimate decider on who is hired and fired. Maybe he is too busy with his day job to pay attention to what is actually happening under his watch.
According to the RTD report “The [disputed] payment to Northrop Grumman was authorized by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency’s acting chief information officer on June 22—and NOT in accordance with internal financial controls, according to Senate Finance Committee staff.“
The Senate Finance Committee’s staff having determined violation of internal financial controls, the full Committee should cause those responsible to be disciplined by applying the most severe penalties permitted - including immediate termination for cause.
Clearly, there are significant financial irregularities with the management of the VITA/NG arrangement which have yet to be fully disclosed or adequately addressed through available legal means.
Sounds like an “AIG”-type deal to me. Poor performance by VITA and NG has been the rule. The concept of privatization was good but the execution has been horrible. Maybe this is to cover the poor performance. Sad.
And state employees are not getting a raise for at least the next two years!
There is something really FISHY about this! Does this guy own stock in NG or something? Just another crook fleesing taxpayers…it gets old.
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