UVM Engages Deloitte to Investigate Contract Awards to Huron Consulting Group
BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The University of Vermont (UVM) will undertake an investigation into the unauthorized award of contracts to Huron Consulting Group. Huron was hired to take-over a PeopleSoft ERP implementation that is seriously delayed and over budget.
The Burlington Free Press is reporting that Deloitte has been engaged to investigate four alleged unauthorized contracts signed in 2007 by UVM with Huron Consulting Group to recover from a problematic migration from in-house applications to Oracle's PeopleSoft.
The unauthorized contracts were disclosed by a UVM staff member in April 2008 and were later disclosed publicly by university president, Dan Fogel. On the day of that disclosure, the university's CFO J. Michael Gower resigned. Gower was the executive in charge of the PeopleSoft implementation.
The total value of the Huron contracts is approximately $10.8 million through August 2008. Since each of the contracts exceeded $250,000, UVM's procurement policy calls for them to receive approval by the university president and the board of trustees, which did not occur. The $10.8 million is in addition to the $26 million authorized in 2004 and a supplemental $4.5 million approved in 2006.
Deloitte's report is expected to be submitted to Burlington law firm, Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, who was asked to spearhead the investigation into the university's internal controls by UVM's board of trustees. The report says the fees for three weeks of investigation services and one week of report preparation and delivery will be $75,000 to $110,000. Deloitte hourly fees range from $390 for partners and directors to $170 for consultants.