Officials with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District have reassigned a project manager who failed to monitor a contractor's travel expenses.
The manager, who was not identified, oversaw work by SPL WorldGroup, a contractor hired to install and implement the agency's new billing software. The software switch created billing problems for at least 32,000 utility accounts.
HRSD's general manager, Ted Henifin, said Wednesday that the reassignment was not connected to the billing problems but the discovery of about $10,000 in "unreasonable" travel expenses submitted by the contractor. Henifin said he understands that billing problems with the $13 million software implementation program have shaken public trust. He said the agency is trying to fix the remaining billing problems and that HRSD has hired an
independent project manager and ordered a special audit of the entire billing system project. "We're really making efforts to regain that trust," Henifin said.
Henifin doesn't blame any of the travel expenses on the contractor but rather on the agency's failure to monitor the costs.
"The burden on managing that was on us," said Henifin, who would not disclose the name of the project manager who had been removed. He said that the project manager still was employed by HRSD.
Henifin said delayed billing was the main problem with the software switch. As of last month, about 5,700 customers had not received a bill since the new software was implemented in July, he said. But that number has dropped significantly, he said. In Norfolk, the number of customers who hadn't received bills dropped to fewer than 2,500, from about 3,500, said Melanie Pesola of the city's utilities department.
Aside from delayed bills, many customers have complained of unusually high bills. Henifin said HRSD has nothing to do with those bills and suggested that customers call individual cities with questions about them. Some city officials, such as Chesapeake Councilman C.E. "Cliff" Hayes Jr., insist the high bills must have something to do with the billing system. He said Chesapeake still is exploring getting out of the regional billing service.
"Our confidence has been shattered," Hayes said.
The questions over travel expenses filed in 2006 by SPL WorldGroup were a surprise to Henifin. He said workers for the company were filing expenses for $1,000 plane tickets when they were supposed to keep costs under $400 per ticket. He also found $200 per night hotel stays, when those expenses were supposed to be kept under $150 per night.
SPL was acquired by enterprise software giant Oracle in the middle of the local project, Henifin said. A public relations representative for Oracle said the company could not respond Wednesday. Hayes said it is obvious that the groups in charge of the software implementation "weren't watching the details of this particular project."
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
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HRSD alittle to late
I would like to favor calling in the Feds, look at and into all the construction projects that they have done. See what they accept and pay for compared to what they should have gotten. They give into contractors on things they should not and who pays us.I onced worked for them and I say look hard and long at all divisions , but Engineering needs an overhaul.
Maybe Its Not the Software
As a programmer, I was once tasked to fix a web order program that was failing to process intermittantly. I determined that the software had no problems (it even reported that the failure was due to specific data being invalid), but every day I was yelled at to fix the problem. Turns out, somebody had failed to enter some data in a table that the program connected to remotely in another city that I had no access to. Maybe the water bill problem is data-entry and not software related. Sometimes the solution lies in the process, not the code. There is a saying in the computer industry: garbage in, garbage out. But treating the customer like a blank check is unacceptable. I wonder if the contract was ever put up to a fair and open bid? I know the contracting company I work for now is very cost-conscious, for both the company and for the clients.
$13 Million Dollars and
this is the software program we get? Something is very wrong with this picture. Very wrong!
Ted's scapegoat?
I wish DC, my hometown, could do so well! Less than 8/100ths of a percent. .00077. That person should get an award for bringing that project in so close to bid. Look out Hampton Roads your going to get dizzy from the spin.
If the amount is that significant. Where was the payables section back checking the invoices or the purchasing setting them up?
Orion...your comment doesn't
Orion...your comment doesn't make any sense. Mr. Henefin, from what I understand, has only been with HRSD for a short time and wasn't responsible for choosing the new computer program or the contractors hired to oversee it. It's hard when you step into a new job in the middle of a mess that other people have created. As far as the hotel expenses, there is no way that these people couldn't find hotels for less than $150. If you're getting paid what I'm sure they were getting paid, you could be a little more thrifty with your travel expenses.
Validated expenses......
If the contractor had RECEIPTS of his validates expenses....what's the problem? In order to get reimbursed for expenses you have to submit a travel claim for ALL expenses. That includes Hotel/Airfare expenses which...in (3) days of travel can add up. Your average airfare is $800 round trip and add hotel expenses for (1) wk. you're looking at $350 and then add Gov't rated (GSA) Per Diem which is reimbursable you're looking at $1,150 in (1) visit (without Per Diem). Do this (10x) and you get $11,500 just in airfare/lodging. Perhaps HRSD wanted an overnight miracle and they didn't use common sense that this day and age....$10,000 is nothing for travel expenses. What did they expect? This is a good example of how Hampton Roads doesn't want to pay ANYONE with experience to get the job done. You pay cheap....you barely get cheap. After all, these Gov't Contractors will pay $16/hr. for PC Tech's on a Navy Contract WELL under the going rate and that's supposed to be "job security"? It's welfare pay. Hampton Roads is the BE$T example of "Welfare Wages" with cost of living and taxes increasing here. It's time to MOVE away from ignorant idiots that are running the companies and Cit
orion to the rescue!
I called the sales and marketing division of my company today. They will be contacting HRSD to see if they need any help as we do is what their "experts" were supposed to do (a programmer from the City of CHESAPEAKE?!?!?!)
HRSD Travel Issues
So Ted Henifin "finds" $10,000 in "unreasonable" travel expenses. As a
professional in the travel industry I can tell him all day long that using $400 as an airfare cap and $150 for a hotel stay is unreasonble.
Has he traveled lately? Try checking with the professionals that are trying to adhere to company's policy using outdated pricing structures -
it's not possible. I wonder if Mr. Henifin is exhausted now from throwing his top people under the bus - the one he couldn't afford anyway.
AS MUCH AS I HATE TO SAY IT
It's time to bring in the Feds!!
WOW!
WOW ! I want his job.Screw two things up,only get blamed for one & still keep your job!Funny how the Pilot buried the KoKoaMos article so very quickly.Try and find it anywhere.They would not post two of my comments & 2- are still pending almost 24 hrs. later? Guess the comment section wasn't going the way they hoped.Or maybe the ACLU was watching?
HRSD BILLING
I still haven't received my bill after numerous phone calls. I have an account number, but no bill. I made a payment per the representative cause I know what it use to run, so after seeing everyone's bills are skyrocketing, that kinda scares me. Looks like us citizens and taxpayers may have some fighting to do with the city once again over a computer diversion program. I just got a supplemental tax bill dated from 2004 and scratched through and handwritten dates and had to pay the extra from a computer diversion, and now HRSD issues too. Way to go Virginia Beach. Gotta love it!
MMMM, Yeah
I told Peter to put the TPS reports on my desk by noon.
I'm a little concerned that
I'm a little concerned that the software is any good at all. If it's finance software it certainly should be able to see mistakes as simple as "average annual, monthly, zone or address" functions. That coupled with the fact they didn't have the training in place and redundant methods checking on themselves while they proofed it. I'd go beyond the poor project manager for corrective actions and hand wringing. Then I'd certainly want to see historical records of billing to see just why they couldn't tell things weren't going well. Someone was asleep at the switch This is a little bit whacked.
not all billing had problems, huh?
So when the contractor submitted bills, they processed just fine, eh?
monopoly
Again, another local monopoly is screwing the citizens. Ever see Office Space? Maybe the developers intentionally programmed the billing errors into the $13 million system and then are siphoning a little bit from the HRSD account. The errant billing is used as a diversion to their scheme so HRSD and cities are focused on upset customers and screwed up accounts and do not have time to notice the other money missing. Just a thought.