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10-day ultimatum for contractor of non-working pension software
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Posted on Jul 10 2011
The NMI Retirement Fund’s board of trustees deferred any action on the long overdue pension software last Friday after it gave its contractor, Express Electronics Ltd., a new 10-day ultimatum.
The project has been on the board’s agenda in the last several months. Because of deficiencies in the software, the agency hired a program analyst, R &R Associates, to evaluate the project and get a recommendation whether to keep it or cut its losses and scrap it entirely.
Last Thursday, Express Electronics Ltd. owner Gary Sword and Fund representatives met, during which a detailed report of numerous deficiencies was discussed and presented to the contractor.
The Fund described the meeting as “productive” after Sword acknowledged that there are actions that need to be done for the project. However, due to the number of deficiencies noted, Sword did not made any immediate commitment and asked that the report be reviewed by his programmers.
It was learned that Sword asked for 10 days, or until July 17, to return to the board with an implementation plan.
The pension software project cost $449,000 and was signed in 2008. The Fund has already paid $402,340 or 89.4 percent of the overall project cost for the still non-functioning software designed by Sword’s company.
The Fund earlier disclosed that because there is still $47,400 remaining for the project, the board is in favor of having the contractor fix the deficiencies within the budget.
Based on the terms and conditions of the contract, the product was expected to be completed in 2009. However, this was not realized, resulting in a delay of more than two years now. In the single audit performed for the Fund in 2009, the pension software system was among the serious findings noted by auditors. Violations of the contract were noted in both parties.
Last Friday, the Fund also assured that the agency is working on providing all requested documents by Felipe Atalig, who filed an Open Government Act requesting several Fund contracts, including that of Express Electronics Ltd. and related records of the contract.
