The main consulting firm for the UW System's proposed $81.5 million human resources project has been under investigation since early August for accounting issues, UW System President Kevin Reilly told state lawmakers Wednesday.
The announcement follows an Associated Press article that highlighted the UWS project and its yearly budget of $33.5 million, which the UW Board of Regents will debate at a meeting Thursday.
According to UW System Spokesperson David Giroux, there is no evidence yet that the contracted firm, Huron Consulting—with 22 employees working on the UW project at a $174 per hour billing rate—will not be able to complete its duties as contracted.
""We know today that the people on the ground here are doing good work ... there's absolutely no change in their performance,"" Giroux said.
Although Huron's stock plummeted 69 percent and its CEO and several other executives resigned immediately following the firm's announcement that it would be restating its earnings and the subsequent investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Giroux said only one of Huron's approximately 700 clients has dropped them as a contractor.
In a press release Wednesday, state Rep. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, said Reilly had ""violated the public trust"" by not coming to lawmakers about the issue sooner.
""You cannot go forward with a project while this company is under such scrutiny,"" said Mike Mikalsen, from Nass' staff. ""At a minimum, wait until there's better clarification to the exact nature of how bad this corporate scandal was.""
But Giroux said delaying the project would be costly.
""Stopping the project now will cost the state millions and millions of dollars,"" Giroux said. He said 60 UW staff and 17 subcontractors are also working on the project.
Giroux said the project is necessary to fix the UW System's outdated HR system and that the university has ""put in extraordinary protections"" in case problems arise from the Huron investigation.
According to Giroux, more than $50 million of the project will come from the UW System's reserve fund over the next seven years.
