New VITA boss’ work just beginning

In nearly seven weeks on the job, Virginia's new computer boss has sacked top executives, worked to strengthen ties to state agencies and taken steps to prevent interruptions in IT services that have ranged from hiccups to complete shutdowns.

But Chief Information Officer George F. Coulter said he's just starting to leaf through the voluminous contract that binds the Virginia Information Technologies Agency to its giant, embattled contractor, Northrop Grumman.

"I need to understand what's going on around me before I can look at a piece of paper," Coulter said yesterday in his first formal interview since taking over VITA.

Aware of the stakes -- Coulter has to turn around a program that has proved an embarrassment to both political parties, state government and Northrop Grumman -- he said: "I was very stressed out in my first week on the job. I'm still very stressed out."

Among the early changes Coulter made was to fire some of the people who knew the contract best. Those included Fred Duball, who, as contract director, declared Northrop Grumman in violation of its agreement with the state for failing to complete a refitting of the government's computer network on time.

Duball supported an attempt in June by Coulter's predecessor, Lemuel C. "Lem" Stewart Jr., to withhold a $14 million monthly payment from Northrop Grumman for poor performance. VITA's oversight board dismissed Stewart, but not before relations between the agency and Northrop Grumman had hit the rocks, alarming the governor and legislators and triggering three General Assembly investigations.

Coulter is making moves to improve ties. For example, he's rearranging seating at VITA's Chesterfield County headquarters, a sprawling, angular building constructed by, and shared with, Northrop Grumman. Rather than confine VITA staff to the ground floor and Northrop Grumman employees upstairs, staffers from both who have been assigned to the same project will work from the same carrels.

"The agencies, from my perspective, they really want to make it work," Coulter said.

Coulter has given more decision-making power to teams that work directly with state agencies to address and remedy their problems, rather than first run them through the front office.

"People are collaborating; people are communicating constantly," Coulter said.

It's all part of a broad plan to improve customer service, said Coulter, who comes to his $191,000-a-year job from the private sector and with no experience in government.

In addition to complaints from agencies about pricey, erratic support by Northrop Grumman, there have been outages at vast agencies and facilities, such as the main office of the Department of Motor Vehicles and a mental-health hospital outside Petersburg. Spotty e-mail service at the Game and Inland Fisheries Department slowed processing of permit requests.

Meanwhile, the contract with Northrop Grumman -- Virginia's largest, at $2.3 billion over 10 years -- continues to roil politics, having become a symbol of troubled management by the state and the influence of a muscular corporation that directs cash contributions to candidates and officeholders.

Each prospect for governor has received $25,000 from Northrop Grumman.

The Democratic nominee for governor, state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath County, has said the governor should have greater control over VITA. He has echoed departing Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's call that the chief information officer report directly to the governor rather than the VITA board, which is made up of gubernatorial and legislative appointees.

The Republican candidate, former state Attorney General Bob McDonnell, is strengthening his stance on VITA. Having initially pledged to demand greater accountability by the agency, McDonnell now also says the CIO should be responsible to the governor. As attorney general, he oversaw the vetting of the state's contract with Northrop Grumman.

"Bob McDonnell has always believed structural changes need to be made to VITA," said campaign spokesman Tucker Martin.

McDonnell disclosed his new position in an interview last month with the Northern Virginia Technology Council, an advocate for the region's fast-growing IT companies. A number of the firms do business with government and are closely monitoring the controversy in Richmond, considering its implications for future contracts. The council endorsed McDonnell.

The council's board of directors includes Linda A. Mills, the Northrop Grumman vice president responsible for the company's Virginia venture. Coulter, in a recent memorandum to the VITA governing board, said he has been meeting with Mills as part of his effort to right the project.

As for the fix-it plan that Northrop Grumman submitted in August -- the company said it needs another year to complete an inventory and refitting of computer systems that was supposed to be done by June -- Coulter said: "I think it's going to work."

Attempting to complement Northrop Grumman's efforts, Coulter is pressing to enlist other companies, particularly telecommunications firms, to minimize disruption in computer-network service.

A single company, Verizon, provides such service right now, but Coulter wants to bring in others as soon as possible. That way most agencies will have at least two network links -- a primary and a backup. Some agencies could have as many as four.

VITA is a legacy of former Gov. Mark R. Warner, a Democrat now in the U.S. Senate. The agency's awkward governance, fashioned on the insistence of General Assembly Republicans who wanted a say in agency operations, has not prevented them from harshly criticizing the program or its lead vendor.

Among their concerns: that Northrop Grumman, while complaining about VITA's management system, wants more money from the state, saying it is spending more than it gets back. Payments are capped at $236 million a year.

And though Coulter has only begun to immerse himself in the contract, the state -- through Deputy Secretary of Technology John McDonald -- is negotiating revisions with Northrop Grumman that Coulter said will not significantly increase costs to taxpayers.

And while he did not elaborate on that point, Coulter said the ceiling will remain in place through 2010, when Northrop Grumman anticipates completing work that was to have been finished this year.

But, Coulter added, "nothing's 100 percent with this thing."

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or .

Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or .