Audit claims University of Maryland IT operated without oversight, wasted millions

Maryland’s legislative auditor this month published a report claiming that the University of Maryland Global Campus mismanaged tens of millions of dollars in funds on IT projects, in one case leading to the abandonment of a $25 million project.

In a letter accompanying his audit report, state Legislative Auditor Brian Tanen wrote that the University of Maryland Global Campus, which primarily offers online degrees and non-credit educational courses, also failed to conduct formal evaluations of several of its IT organizations, which had for at least six years operated without oversight.

The auditor claimed that “two of these entities remained almost solely dependent on UMGC as a customer and source of revenue,” often operating outside of any competitive procurement process. 

“UMGC had essentially no oversight or control and could not provide critical information about operations including the salaries being paid to its employees, procurement practices, ethics policies, and internal controls,” the report reads. “… UMGC also did not adequately monitor the work performed by these entities to ensure the related services were provided.”

The auditor also claimed that the lack of governance led to the university dumping a $25.7 million student information system project and opting instead to pay a vendor $719,000 to upgrade its existing student information system.

The auditor claimed that between Oct. 1, 2018 and Dec. 31, 2022, the university spent more than $184 million on IT services without engaging in a competitive procurement process or verifying that the proper amounts had been paid. Ellen Herbst, the university’s senior vice chancellor for administration and finance, disagreed with this finding, citing a statute that she said exempted the special IT organizations involved from competitive procurement.

Herbst agreed with other recommendations, such as that the university begin holding periodic evaluations to ensure proper spending of funds.

The university also included timelines for its planned changes, some of which are scheduled for completion this year, while others are slated for next year. By the end of the year, for instance, the university said it will “ensure that large-scale IT projects are routinely, adequately, and independently monitored and evaluated by UMGC’s Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) to ensure the proper and timely receipt of all required deliverables.”