I know some dudes who had an internship there and essentially the same story, except they leased apts instead of hotel rooms.
US Government Spends $634 MILLION DOLLARS on Healthcare.gov Website
- Thread starter contract
- Start date
I know some dudes who had an internship there and essentially the same story, except they leased apts instead of hotel rooms.
Former HUD asst Secretary Catherine Fitts investigated monetary shenanigans in her agency during the 90's and found the CIA's dirty fingerprints all over things.
What's $634 Million when the Treasury is missing $3.3 Trillion? Black Budget anyone?
CIA PAPER
Estimate $3.3 Trillion Missing From U.S. Treasury
"In June 2001 the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, under the leadership of Senator Fred Thompson (R- Tenn.), published its study, "Government at the Brink." The study describes the failure of federal government agencies to maintain reliable financial systems and/or to publish required independent annual audited financial statements. The President's initial 2002 budget (before increases for 9/11) proposed that approximately 85% of all federal appropriations be awarded to the very same agencies the Thompson study states either (1) fail to maintain reliable financial systems, (2) fail to publish trustworthy or, in some cases, any, independent certified financial statements (as required by law), or both." (Source Solari.com)
This is the same Fred Thompson from tv. So much for Law and Order eh?
What's $634 Million when the Treasury is missing $3.3 Trillion? Black Budget anyone?
CIA PAPER
Estimate $3.3 Trillion Missing From U.S. Treasury
"In June 2001 the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, under the leadership of Senator Fred Thompson (R- Tenn.), published its study, "Government at the Brink." The study describes the failure of federal government agencies to maintain reliable financial systems and/or to publish required independent annual audited financial statements. The President's initial 2002 budget (before increases for 9/11) proposed that approximately 85% of all federal appropriations be awarded to the very same agencies the Thompson study states either (1) fail to maintain reliable financial systems, (2) fail to publish trustworthy or, in some cases, any, independent certified financial statements (as required by law), or both." (Source Solari.com)
This is the same Fred Thompson from tv. So much for Law and Order eh?
Oh this is going to make for a fun infographic, thanks. Just in time for the Gov shutdown buzz too.
Isn't the Gov't supposed to be stimulating the US economy, creating jobs, and spending money wisely?
Instead they are outsourcing to foreign companies and paying 100s of times more than they should be. You go offshore to save money usually, but the US gov't shouldn't be outsourcing to foreign labor what could be done domestically anyway. It's just slightly hypocritical when they are trying to keep manufacturing in the US.
There's no shortage of highly talented people working in boutique agencies in the US that are more than capable of turning out much better than these mediocre websites, for a fractrion of the cost.
Alternatively, gov't agencies could have their own internal web development teams. As a friend just said, they can can eavesdrop on global communications and fight robotic wars but they can't manage to put up a website? Ridiculous.
Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is executive at company that built Obamacare website
Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.
Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a Canadian company.
Townes-Whitley and her Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
Michelle Obama’s Princeton classmate is a top executive at the company that earned the contract to build the failed Obamacare website.
Toni Townes-Whitley, Princeton class of ’85, is senior vice president at CGI Federal, which earned the no-bid contract to build the $678 million Obamacare enrollment website at Healthcare.gov. CGI Federal is the U.S. arm of a Canadian company.
Townes-Whitley and her Princeton classmate Michelle Obama are both members of the Association of Black Princeton Alumni.
In any other business, the company would sue the contractor for fucking up and taking them to court. A fuck up like this in the 700 million dollar range, I wonder who will pay up or go to court? Oh never mind, I forgot, the IRAQ war.
Accountability? What the fuck is that? Not in the White House dictionary.
Accountability? What the fuck is that? Not in the White House dictionary.
LOL
This has more to do with the general fuckup that is government IT contracts.
Requirement freeze? Not with gubmints.
See here for more info
General cause = politics
Politics, not technology, brings down government IT projects, experts say - HispanicBusiness.com
Very nice overview and discussion of failed projects, government, military and private sector, and not only US (I have seen UK, US and Canada so far)
Failed government project – Why Projects Fail
And it is not just this project
As far as I see, people are going "THANKS OBAMA!" and also pointing at the Canadian firm
Well, this here is POTUS Bush in 2005 and IBM -->
It has been PULLED 2012 from IBM and given to two new companies, Xeroc and Capgemini (also both not unknown) .. but project staus seems to be unknown.
Germans will remember Toll Collect (huuuge Budget overrun for a highway toll on heavy trucks), the STILL defunct nationwide police IT system, the failed Military IT initiative, etc, etc,..
That said ...
What irks me is the "no bid" for a 900 Million - if that holds up, there is a serious flaw in the process.
(Which EVERY party will have misused and continue to do so)
::emp::
This has more to do with the general fuckup that is government IT contracts.
Requirement freeze? Not with gubmints.
See here for more info
General cause = politics
Politics, not technology, brings down government IT projects, experts say - HispanicBusiness.com
Very nice overview and discussion of failed projects, government, military and private sector, and not only US (I have seen UK, US and Canada so far)
Failed government project – Why Projects Fail
And it is not just this project
As far as I see, people are going "THANKS OBAMA!" and also pointing at the Canadian firm
Well, this here is POTUS Bush in 2005 and IBM -->
It has been PULLED 2012 from IBM and given to two new companies, Xeroc and Capgemini (also both not unknown) .. but project staus seems to be unknown.
Germans will remember Toll Collect (huuuge Budget overrun for a highway toll on heavy trucks), the STILL defunct nationwide police IT system, the failed Military IT initiative, etc, etc,..
That said ...
What irks me is the "no bid" for a 900 Million - if that holds up, there is a serious flaw in the process.
(Which EVERY party will have misused and continue to do so)
::emp::
'HealthCare.gov is fixable,' says consultant who will oversee repairs to Obamacare website
WASHINGTON -- Nearly a month into the dysfunctional rollout, the Obama administration acknowledged the wide extent of its health care website's problems Friday and abruptly turned to a private company to oversee urgent fixes. Setting a new timetable, officials said most issues will be repaired by the end of November.
It will take a lot of work, but "HealthCare.gov is fixable," declared Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant brought in by the White House. By the end of next month, he said, there will be many fewer signup problems such as computer screen freezes -- but he stopped short of saying problems will completely disappear.
The administration also said it is promoting one of the website contractors, a subsidiary of the nation's largest health insurance company, to take on the role of "general contractor" shepherding the fixes.
Quality Software Services Inc. -- owned by a unit of UnitedHealth Group-- was responsible for two components of the government's online insurance system. One is the data hub, a linchpin that works relatively well, and the other is an accounts registration feature that initially froze and caused many problems.
Zients reported that his review found dozens of issues across the entire system, which is made up of layers of components meant to interact in real time with consumers, government agencies and insurance company computers.
<snip>
Haha. How much is it gonna cost to fix it, y0h?
WASHINGTON -- Nearly a month into the dysfunctional rollout, the Obama administration acknowledged the wide extent of its health care website's problems Friday and abruptly turned to a private company to oversee urgent fixes. Setting a new timetable, officials said most issues will be repaired by the end of November.
It will take a lot of work, but "HealthCare.gov is fixable," declared Jeffrey Zients, a management consultant brought in by the White House. By the end of next month, he said, there will be many fewer signup problems such as computer screen freezes -- but he stopped short of saying problems will completely disappear.
The administration also said it is promoting one of the website contractors, a subsidiary of the nation's largest health insurance company, to take on the role of "general contractor" shepherding the fixes.
Quality Software Services Inc. -- owned by a unit of UnitedHealth Group-- was responsible for two components of the government's online insurance system. One is the data hub, a linchpin that works relatively well, and the other is an accounts registration feature that initially froze and caused many problems.
Zients reported that his review found dozens of issues across the entire system, which is made up of layers of components meant to interact in real time with consumers, government agencies and insurance company computers.
<snip>
Haha. How much is it gonna cost to fix it, y0h?
And just to add to the fuckuo that is gubmint IT projects, here comes the UK
Major UK IT projects at risk of failure, warns government watchdog | ZDNet
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ&t=53s]The IT Crowd - Series 1 - Episode 2: Fire! - YouTube[/ame]
::emp::
Major UK IT projects at risk of failure, warns government watchdog | ZDNet
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EBfxjSFAxQ&t=53s]The IT Crowd - Series 1 - Episode 2: Fire! - YouTube[/ame]
::emp::
Such a fucking waste of tax dollars. Such a fucking scam. The government likes creating these hyped up scammish lying pork barrel scenarios. Cesspools of corruption and slime. OOooooo, BILLIONS on technology. We gonna hook yew mericuns up with some kwality health kare, yeeeah! Yay healthkare!! YAY!!!! h00k us up! h00k us up! Bullfuckingshit. The Fucking USA healthcare site, including hardware, infrastructure, staffing, design, coding, and support could have been achieved for 25 million or less (where the fuck did the other $609M go? I wanna fucking know right now). And if it had been put in the right hands, would have been pulled off without a hitch. But even if it had, the affordable care act is a lie and a nasty scam. So, we have sub-scams and multiple iterations of scammish scumbag scallywags. "My scams have scams". Fuck.
EPIC AMERICAN FAIL. THANKS OBAMA.
EPIC AMERICAN FAIL. THANKS OBAMA.
I've done a lot of Federal contracting. They have a lot in common with Fortune 100 companies, yet they are so much bigger the problems scale up tremendously.
Take, for example, the task of changing the name of one working group inside an organization. If you are a small business, you walk over to Cindy and Tom and tell them "You're no longer 'Sales', you are 'Marketing and Customer Acquisition'".
Tom and Cindy spend maybe a couple hundred bucks changing business cards and signage, and life moves on.
Let's present that problem to a Federal Agency. The scale of how it affects everything is HUGE.
So you walk over to the Ohio Marketing sub-department and tell them they are now the "Western Ohio Marketing Department". Seems simple, right?
But now, before they can change their name, they have to find all of the dependent systems that use their name. It turns out the main marketing group uses their name, and has to change all of it's web stuff, paper stuff, etc to support you.
But you are marketing, which means you own customer data. This is covered by Sarbanes/Oxley regulations, so your process of changing everything has to be documented. And the IT department has just informed you that the name change affects 23 of their systems, from the enterprise software control system to the help desk to the change management system. Hundreds of hours of regulatory paper work and more will be required.
The total cost, in the end, to change a name - will almost ALWAYS run into the 6 figures. You'll have 10 $150/hr consultants on the job for a week, plus employees and other staff (temps, etc) and other overhead.
So....don't be surprised. I was once flown to a meeting on short notice, along with 100 other people, where the topic was "How to save money in the next fiscal year". I was all like "How about NOT spending $2000/person to attend a meeting on short notice?"
Take, for example, the task of changing the name of one working group inside an organization. If you are a small business, you walk over to Cindy and Tom and tell them "You're no longer 'Sales', you are 'Marketing and Customer Acquisition'".
Tom and Cindy spend maybe a couple hundred bucks changing business cards and signage, and life moves on.
Let's present that problem to a Federal Agency. The scale of how it affects everything is HUGE.
So you walk over to the Ohio Marketing sub-department and tell them they are now the "Western Ohio Marketing Department". Seems simple, right?
But now, before they can change their name, they have to find all of the dependent systems that use their name. It turns out the main marketing group uses their name, and has to change all of it's web stuff, paper stuff, etc to support you.
But you are marketing, which means you own customer data. This is covered by Sarbanes/Oxley regulations, so your process of changing everything has to be documented. And the IT department has just informed you that the name change affects 23 of their systems, from the enterprise software control system to the help desk to the change management system. Hundreds of hours of regulatory paper work and more will be required.
The total cost, in the end, to change a name - will almost ALWAYS run into the 6 figures. You'll have 10 $150/hr consultants on the job for a week, plus employees and other staff (temps, etc) and other overhead.
So....don't be surprised. I was once flown to a meeting on short notice, along with 100 other people, where the topic was "How to save money in the next fiscal year". I was all like "How about NOT spending $2000/person to attend a meeting on short notice?"
HAhaha...
Actually this scale thing is the same for any HUGE corporation. Any change affects so much, it costs shitloads.
I worked in an international bank (one of the top 5) here in Switzerland.
Calculations existed that told us that simply changing the work place of one person (move from room A to B) cost the bank around 2K$
In one year, we moved entire departments 3 times.
::emp::
Actually this scale thing is the same for any HUGE corporation. Any change affects so much, it costs shitloads.
I worked in an international bank (one of the top 5) here in Switzerland.
Calculations existed that told us that simply changing the work place of one person (move from room A to B) cost the bank around 2K$
In one year, we moved entire departments 3 times.
::emp::
