Government procurement (and sometimes enterprise procurement) is a farce.

In government, some insider/beaurocrat gets his / her buddy (who also happens to be a consultant/contractor) to write the RFI. The insider then publishes the RFI in the governmants name. Problem is - that it's so narrowly written that only the guy (that really) wrote it, can possibly submit a winning [stealing?] bid.

So the insider's buddy gets the gig. The insider gets a kickback, or a big fat job at his buddies when he leaves government, or both.

The project is never delivered - but the billing is always on time - and the excuse for not stopping the contract:
"We're in so deep, we cant stop now"

It looks like burning the taxpayer in canada is just as rampant as it is in america.

Answer:
Get rid of professional politicians - representative government should be like jury duty - unless you've got an excuse - its "your" turn to serve.

Look at "invented wars" - Its a tax giveaway to industries that should be out of business!

IT's TIME TO STORM THE BASTILLE!!

Oops - Is CARNIVORE watching us?:-)

SET RANT OFF


>"More than 670,000 people on welfare and disability assistance will have to wait weeks for a 3 per cent increase because the government's $500 million computer system cannot yet calculate the increase, slated to go into effect July 1."
>
>http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1089151811618&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
>
>From my point of view, a developer once employed by the Government, the situation is extremely instructive.
>
>Here you have everything:
>
>- massive system being in development for at least five years
>
>- consulting company being blamed for inflated cost of the software development, training and support
>
>- users complaining that the system "is confusing and takes hours to make even the smallest adjustments"
>
>- an outside computer expert saying "It sounds even to me like it should be very easy" about the functionality failed to be delivered
>
>- consulting company trying to explain that any changes on that massive system with 800+ business rules require thorough testing
>
>- a fierce clash between two political parties on who's responsible
>
>and so on, and so on...