New Jersey

Rutgers University Catching Up on Unpaid Bills After Technical Glitches

Issues related to a new financial accounting computer system have left thousands of Rutgers University vendors awaiting payment from the school.

But university officials tell NJ.com that they have made "significant progress" in paying a backlog of 12,650 unpaid bills.

The new system, called Cornerstone, was supposed to be the last major step in Rutgers' merger with the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. It was designed to end Rutgers and UMDNJ's separate, paper-based expense management systems.

But officials say the rollout of the campus-wide computer system has been plagued with problems since it began in October.

Rutgers spokeswoman Karen Smith said it's too early to say if the school will get a refund from the software companies involved in the multiyear project.

"The university is holding the (software) companies accountable for resolving the glitches and any resulting impacts," Smith said. "We are not discussing 'compensation' until or unless it becomes appropriate."

Rutgers is paying California-based Oracle $2.1 million a year to license the new financial accounting software. SciQuest, a North Carolina-based software company, is getting a $706,581 annual licensing fee for the procurement software used in the new system and Deloitte -- the lead consultant on the Cornerstone project -- has billed Rutgers about $6.7 million over the last 18 months for helping oversee the rollout.

"Rutgers continues to receive several thousand invoices from external vendors each week," said Smith. "Staff members are working diligently to reduce additional backlogs. During this transition, the university has developed an emergency payment process to expedite vendor payments as appropriate." [[238427591, C]]

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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