Northrop Grumman can forget about more money from taxpayers for computer services because of Virginia’s tight budget and exasperation over poor performance, some legislators say. The warning—disputed by several other lawmakers—came ahead of today’s anticipated selection of a new chief information officer from a pool that includes a previously unreported prospect: George Coulter, said to have close ties to the Northern Virginia information-technology community.

A familiar face is returning to the Virginia Information Technologies Agency’s oversight board—just in time to pick a new agency chief.

House Republicans want technology secretary who is interim chief information officer to resign one of the two posts, but Leonard M. Pomata says he will continue until the job is filled.

Speaker of the House William J. Howell, R-Stafford, today called on Leonard M. “Len” Pomata, who is currently serving as both Sec. of Technology and interim head of the state’s info-tech agency, to relinquish one of his roles. The request of Howell and other House Republicans follows an opinion from Attorney General William C. Mims on Friday that one person cannot serve in both roles simultaneously.

Absent from the Bob McDonnell-for-governor narrative: Republicans can do a better job than Democrats—on the budget, revenue, government nuts and bolts. Could this missing piece expose a vulnerability on what would seem a gimme as a talking point?: the state’s problem-plagued hiring of Northrop Grumman for computer services. Promising a look-see, Creigh Deeds struggles to finesse an issue that speaks to the supposed competence of the fellow D’s he hopes to succeed, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. But McDonnell is nearly silent.

Computer bosses for a giant charity and federal agencies are prospects for Virginia’s information-technology chief, whose first task will be to salvage the state’s troubled relationship with Northrop Grumman. With the search for a new chief information officer winding down—perhaps to be completed by month’s end—the names of at least three candidates are being circulated in government and industry circles.

Conceding delays in providing information-technology services to the state as part of a $2.3 billion pact, Northrop Grumman is pointing to the state’s oversight structure as contributing to the problems. In a Sunday op-ed piece in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Northrop Grumman executive Cheryl L. Janey wrote—about four years into a 10-year contract—that progress requires “complex governmental coordination and decision-making.“

WASHINGTON This has been the summer of discontent for the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) and its massively troubled $2 billion, 10-year information technology outsourcing deal with Northrop Grumman. As The Times-Dispatch has detailed in numerous articles over the past month, Virginia state government is receiving questionable benefits and incurring disturbingly high costs for a deal that was designed to transform its technology infrastructure.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell said yesterday that he would not sign a bill that would seek to increase taxes to pay for road improvements. In an online chat at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, McDonnell said: “In this economy, I don’t think people can sustain more taxes.“ He added: “I think it’s unlikely the General Assembly passes a significant tax increase.“

Frustrated by spotty performance—including the paralysis of the motor-vehicle agency’s computer system—Virginia’s information technology chief for months wanted to use the state checkbook as a weapon against contractor Northrop Grumman, but was thwarted by his bosses in the run-up to his eventual firing. In March, after citing inventory problems, billing disputes and service disruptions across state government, then-Chief Information Officer Lemuel C. “Lem” Stewart Jr. sought to cut monthly payments to Northrop Grumman by 25 percent until its performance improved.

As Virginia deals with the headaches—financial, political and administrative—of turning over its info-tech system to deep-pocketed defense giant Northrop Grumman, a voice from the past may offer guidance for the future of privatization in a state that seems more corporate subsidiary than commonwealth. Paul R. Verkuil, former president of the College of William and Mary, is a free-market advocate who worries that relinquishing government responsibilities to the private sector only drives up profits at the expense of public capital.

Weeks before their dispute exploded in public, the state’s then-computer chief and his bosses quarreled via e-mail over paying the giant contractor millions of dollars despite continuing delays in fulfilling a $2.3 billion contract.

Despite missed deadlines and billing disputes as part of Virginia’s richest-ever privatization pact, the state’s IT services contractor projected three months ago that without changes to the contract, the state’s costs could swell by $26 million more a year. The disclosure came in a document released late Thursday night—hours before a Northrop Grumman executive stood before an oversight board to soothe heightened concerns and offered broad-brush assurances that the project will be a success.

Under fire amid missed deadlines and rising costs, contractor maintains that the deal with the state for IT services will be a success.

Virginia will pay its corporate IT partner $9,000 over the five-year life of each laptop computer state employees use, under a $2.3 billion, 10-year contract. The money covers a range of services and the replacement cost of the computer—a replacement that the contractor would own, said Marcella Williamson, executive director of the independent board that oversees the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.