HRSD manager removed over expenses from contractor

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