The UW System Board of Regents released an internal report Friday showing that no updates were given to the Regents at board meetings until 2006 regarding a $28.4 million payroll and benefit information technology project.
However, according to Regents President David Walsh, members of the Board were kept informed of the project's purposes.
As soon as the UW System identified problems with the project, ""we were kept informed,"" Walsh said of difficulties that arose during the planned implementation of the IT program.
After Kevin Reilly became the new UW System president in 2004, problems with the project were identified and later halted, according to Walsh.
The report, commissioned by the Board, contradicts Walsh and says no updates were given in public forums at Regents meetings until after the project was halted in 2006.
During the planning phases—before the UW System tried to begin implementation of the project—between 1996 and 2001, the Board was given updates of the project, according to the report.
Project status updates, given at least annually, are what the report recommends the Regents adopt for future IT projects.
""According to the literature we reviewed, IT initiatives enjoy greater success with board awareness of the initiatives, and the boards should ‘ask powerful questions' about their institutions' investments in and strategies for IT,"" the internal report said. ""At the same time, boards are typically advised to avoid ‘micromanagement.'""
UW System spokesperson David Giroux said there was a lack of updates because of the differences between the way Regents are kept informed on construction projects and the way they are kept informed regarding IT projects.
Building project managers and the UW System must continually give updates to the Regents in accordance with current Board of Regents policy, according to Giroux.
Giroux emphasized the changing scale of IT projects in state university systems, in which software projects may cost millions of dollars and require more oversight.
He said because IT projects now may cost as much as construction projects, Regents should be kept updated of IT projects' statuses in a similar manner.
