A group that was hired by the University of Wisconsin System to perform a multimillion dollar overhaul to the Human Resource payroll computer system, and which is currently under review by the Securities and Exchange Commission, presented its case at the UW System Board of Regents meeting Thursday.
According to Regent Jose Vasquez, UW System President Kevin Reilly had known about the financial review of Huron Consulting Group before the rest of the regents were informed. Vasquez added he was taken aback when he received the news.
“There were some questions I had simply because he only had conveyed to us the info in the media a few days before,” Vasquez said. “I wanted to know, ‘What did that mean for the project?'”
Huron is under review for 2006, 2007, 2008 and the first part of the 2009 fiscal years for accounting and financial misstatements, according to a statement released by the group.
“The policy they violated wasn’t anything to do with cash flow, rather it was talking about how you report the increase in a shareholder’s share value based on the acquiring of another company,” said Regent Aaron Wingad, a senior at UW-Eau Claire. “It won’t affect our relationship with the company.”
Wingad said he feels comfortable moving ahead with the project, though he isn’t too pleased with the idea of spending $80 million when it could go toward other student services or university expenditures. Although, he added there is a “tremendous need for it.”
“We can never predict the future; we don’t know what is going to happen with the company and don’t know what the effects will be, but they seem [they] will be very little,” Wingad said.
Vasquez said having Regent Jeffrey Bartell, an attorney, meet with Huron’s CEO ahead of time provided additional information that was helpful to the regents in making their decision.
Even though Vasquez said his concerns were addressed and he feels comfortable moving forward with the project, the UW System should proceed with caution.
“I think we should all be very cautious seeing as the company still has to go through all the SEC process. There is still a cloud there above the company, there is no doubt about it,” Vasquez said.
The UW System has already discussed putting those various protections into place to ensure working with Huron will be smooth, according to UW System spokesperson David Giroux.
“There will be additional safeguards put in place — most of them relate to the continuity of staffing to our projects,” Giroux said. “There are penalties that would incur if [current Huron staff] were to leave and not promptly be replaced with staff of the same ability.”
Along with the discussion of the HRS project, committees met to discuss other topics. Vasquez sits on the Education Committee and helped to approve a new UW doctor of nursing practice program, which will be voted on by all the regents today. Vasquez also voted for an entrepreneur program at UW-Whitewater, which he said he was very pleased to see pass.
The final decision to approve the first year of funding for the HRS project will happen today.
