A clue to an ongoing mystery

For several years, a mysterious topic appeared from time to time on Regents' agenda, always in closed-door sessions, entitled "Pension Administration Project." It was never clear what that Project was and since the meetings were closed, there was no way to find out. But a hint appeared in a recent Forbes article which was really about another issue. The relevant excerpts are below:

Sagitec, a software development company... is being sued by the University of California (Regents of the University of California v. Sagitec Solutions), and the UC lawsuit against the company is rooted in a dispute over Sagitec’s revamp of the UC’s pension administrative system which is used, among other things, to calculate and distribute retirement pay to former UC employees...

The UC System contends that Sagitec not only did a sub-standard job with the revamp, but it also committed fraud against the government. Sagitec disputes both allegations, and asserts that it delivered a working product requested by the UC System, and that it did so amidst an endless series of requests from UC that continuously altered the scope of the project... UC [is] invoking of the California False Claims Act in its lawsuit, which enables governmental entities to pursue triple damages in claims made against private contractors... 

[T]he UC System’s public filings indicate that it wants to bring the project contracted out to Sagitec in-house. About the plan, color this writer skeptical, both for the UC System and the taxpayers on the hook. Governments aren’t exactly known to be efficient and/or effective when it comes to executing large-scale and highly complicated projects, not to mention that the UC System has brought projects of this size in-house before. Think UCPath, the System’s internal payroll function that only came into existence after years of delays, cost overruns, and payroll mistakes that generated all manner of lawsuits...

Full article at https://www.forbes.com/sites/johntamny/2025/01/16/government-spending-saps-growth-while-warping-those-who-drive-it/.

Now, of course, this is all speculation, since the Pension Administration Project was always discussed in closed session. But if anyone at UCOP would like to offer a correction, I would welcome an email or phone call.