VITA overseers question shake-up
Published: September 10, 2009
Updated: September 10, 2009
Overseers of Virginia's besieged computer department worry that a sweeping management shake-up will handicap the state in dealings with Northrop Grumman, the giant company hired to provide the government information-technology services.
"Those individuals have expertise and institutional knowledge that the commonwealth needs, particularly at this time in dealings with Northrop Grumman," said Hiram Johnson, a trustee of the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.
The state's new computer czar, George F. Coulter, on Tuesday sacked three top managers who had been critical of Northrop Grumman's performance: internal auditor Peggy Ward; Fred Duball, contract administrator; and Chief Financial Officer Jim Roberts.
The three had little to say or declined comment yesterday about their dismissals.
Another VITA trustee, Mary Guy Miller, said in an e-mail to fellow overseers: "I am very disturbed by actions taken [Tuesday] by George Coulter. . . . I believe that the [oversight] board has significant responsibility, and either we are not being allowed to exercise our responsibility, or we have had it taken away."
Beyond putting his stamp on VITA barely three weeks into his tenure, Coulter's realignment of the agency is designed largely to salvage the state's delayed and costly switch to a Northrop Grumman-managed computer and communications network.
Coulter said changes in VITA's front office are necessary to improve service. But in streamlining the agency, Coulter also said he is strengthening his control over VITA.
And as expected, Northrop Grumman -- four years into a 10-year, $2.3 billion contract with the state -- also is changing the management of its Virginia venture.
Samuel Abbate, who currently supervises a Northrop Grumman-run wireless communications system for New York City, replaces Douglas J. McVicar. Abbate is the third manager of the Virginia project since its launch in 2005.
Johnson and Miller are legislative appointees to the VITA governing body, the Information Technology Investment Board. The Republican-dominated House of Delegates has been sharply critical of the upheaval that has roiled VITA and of the agency's clash with Northrop Grumman.
Further, GOP lawmakers have insisted that the board -- made up of legislative and gubernatorial appointees -- play an active role in VITA's management. Northrop Grumman has complained that the management setup is balky and impedes communication with agencies.
Johnson said Coulter, whose selection Johnson opposed, should have waited longer to make changes: "Take time, learn what's going on; listen to JLARC's report in October."
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the General Assembly's investigative agency, is accelerating a snapshot of VITA. Originally due in December, the JLARC report now is expected next month and could prompt changes in the state's contract with Northrop Grumman.
In her e-mail, Miller said Coulter should provide a briefing on his changes for the VITA board, adding: "The board has 10 members, and I believe that it is time for us to step up and take back our responsibilities."
Coulter succeeded Lemuel C. "Lem" Stewart Jr., who was fired in June as chief information officer after proposing that the state withhold a $14 million payment to Northrop Grumman as punishment for poor service.
Contact Jeff E. Schapiro at (804) 649-6814 or
.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
TO bk1969,RE Peggy’s attire, not necessarily disagreeing with you but MEOOOW! ;)
I would disagree with incompetent, but if you had said ineffective, I would agree, but then I thought the whole arrangement was an absurd increase in bureaucracy with no direct lines of accountability between VITA staff and NG to begin with.
ditto what Rick says.
Not only was she hard working but incompetent, her attire wouldn’t pass a high school dress code. How she was tolerated as long as she was was amazing.
I have to counter the comments from the Peggy Ward fan club. She is a hard worker, true, but a perfectionist. That means that Picky Peggy didn’t get a whole lot completed in spite of her hard work. She drove her staff on both the security and audit sides crazy with constant and often contradictory direction and micro-management. She pushed more than a few very good workers out the door, and IMHO was partially responsible for the passing of her predecessor. I wish her well, but I’m not alone in being glad to see her gone.
Fud0h - right on the money. I fully expected..NG will fire some people…VITA will fire some people..and the state will go..well don’t DO that stuff anymore..and how much should I make the check out for? VITA is the problem…because state agencies are required by law to use them…and they have no idea how to provide the services…so they outsourced to NG…NG doesn’t have a clue…I read NG’s “plan” to “fix” this issue…and all i got to say is.. I want to meet and work with the people represented in the “plan”..cause I’ll tell you…working with the VITA and NG representatives I do now..they don’t CARE about the agency business needs..the ones who did care…they were fired.
I have one question for all of the folks who are blogging tonight.
If the ITIB was not doing a good job with “overseeing” this project, the question is should there be a board at all? OR should Mr. Coulter be where the buck stops once and for all?
And from one post from a person in the negotiations, if “JS” (whoever that is) asked you to be silent and that they would work out the details later, it doesn’t look like those abolished have those initials. So, did JS survive the Coulter reorg? Why?
RE Fud0h,
To be fair Peggy joined VITA in 2005, so I doubt she was there for the ‘negotiations’. As I noted previously, Jim Roberts’ predecessors both left us suddenly and too soon, he joined VITA in 2006. So Fred is left with the ‘negotiations’. I will stipulate that my sense of governor appointees were that if you were a good ‘solider’ you did not complain about VITA/NG, but otherwise am intrigued by your assessment and largely concur.
The idea that any of these three were fired for their “opposition” to the NG contract/performance is purely ridiculous. Having worked closely with 2 of the three, direct report to one of them, and fired by that one for -wait for it- being too blatantly honest about the undeniable failure of this whole engagement 2 years ago, I can honestly say that none of the three made a peep during the entire negotiations, signing of the contract or at any time until Lem Stewart FINALLY realized what I was saying at the start of the contract.
As a high level subject matter expert I was there in the negotiations. I was personally told by VITA management staff at the time (you Mr. J.S.) to not ask the right questions, to let it slide…it would all be worked out later.
When the contract was signed and what we were able to negotiate never made it in I saw the writing on the wall. These individuals, some of whom were personally informed by me of the issues, played nice with NG all along until THEIR ability to function was impacted.
Now that I am in the private sector the #1 question I am asked by people who find out what my former position was is “what happened to get us here?“. And without a doubt I can say that it was a) groupthink by the majority of upper management at VITA, with no one willing to state the obvious in the face of political pressures from the Warner administration
b) lack of due diligence 4-5 years ago when VITA was first formed. No accurate inventories,etc. were done then, so how could the contract be written correctly to address it?
c) lack of technical knowledge/firepower both at the VITA management level and the majority of NG. I am sure the NG apologists will have a field day, but when I was there, the vast majority of people ESPECIALLY the management team were basically clueless, and just trying to bluff and push their way through this thing.
Anyway I’ve spent enough time in my life analyzing this entire mess. Good riddance to them all…and good luck to the citizens of the Commonwealth that were dragged down this path by them.
Don’t worry about that, johnjay. I can go through the contract section by section and demonstrate material failure by NG to meet just about every every objective standard of those terms, very clearly.
And if I can do it, I’m sure Virginia’s AG can. They’ll have no problem getting a judge to declare that they defaulted. That’s why they are working so hard in the media and throwing money at politicians - they can’t win a court battle over this.
CharlesHauge writes “What I do know is that there is no financial penalty to the State for termination based on failure by NG to complete the “transformation” by June 30, 2009.“
Charles, I wish it was that simple. Read page 59 of the contract (Adobe p.78): “In the event that it is subsequently and finally determined by a court…that the circumstances claimed by the Commonwealth to constitute a Default by Vendor, and that formed the basis of a termination of the Term of this Agreement…did not in fact constitute a Default, then the Term of this Agreement…shall be deemed to have been terminated by the Commonwealth for its convenience, pursuant to Section 14.2.“ Now, read 14.2: “In the event that the Commonwealth terminates…pursuant to this Section 14.2, the Commonwealth shall pay Vendor the applicable Exit Fee and shall assume the applicable Resolution Fees.“ Those fees equal more than $400 million. You can start adding them up if you go to page 59 at http://www.vita.virginia.gov/uploadedFiles/IT_Partnership/Attachments10.1-10.1.12(FeeScheduleTables).NG.Final.pdf
Apparently Mr. Abbate err… I mean youwishyouknew is right on the job. Bringing up the old “cultural resistance to change” meme is simply a disingenuous way to divert attention from the real issues.
You want “cooperation” from agencies, but the agencies *are* cooperating, they just aren’t getting the promised service. When Northrop Grumman (or the consultants that have hired commuting from Chicago) come to the agency with a 2-page PowerPoint as a “plan”, then can’t answer any question about how things will work, or how services and and applications can be supported and seem to have no idea whatsoever what the agency’s IT currently looks like, it’s no wonder they balk.
Frankly, I’ll take the hard-working “Good ol’ Boy” Virginians maintaining our IT infrastructure over your beloved “Good ol’ Boy” millionaire CEO’s and VP’s from Washington and New York any day of the week. At least they’ve got Virginia as a priority, instead of some global corporation.
It’s easy to see what the priorities are by looking at NG’s “Help Desk” system (staffed by Burger King rejects). Tickets are either returned to the agency for their own staff to handle, or given the lowest possible priority (and then ignored for at least a month). The only exception is anything to do with “transformation”, which is given top priority. YES - NG is setting the priorities for state IT, NOT the agency requirements.
There is simply no way that this sell-out can be called a “success”, unless you only consider it a “success” when all the critics are silenced and the bleeding from the state treasury goes unnoticed.
I agree with revnhoj and CharlesHague: It’s time to start taking a hard look at Disentanglement!
Post a Comment(Requires free registration)
- Please avoid offensive, vulgar, or hateful language.
- Respect others.
- Use the "Flag Comment" link when necessary.
- See the Terms and Conditions for details.
Advertisement