From the Daily News:Will taxpayers be held hostage to the CityTime money pit for years to come?
Defense giant SAIC, the main contractor on the scandal-plagued $700 million timekeeping and payroll project, failed to provide city officials with so much vital information about the system's design that no one else can operate or maintain it.
That's the astonishing conclusion of a new study of CityTime by accounting firm KPMG.
The knowledge transfer that is standard in private industry for such huge information technology purchases did not occur with SAIC, the report concluded.
"The lack of formal knowledge transfer planning and documentation increases the risk that the City will continue to be reliant on vendor support of the application," KPMG said in a 62-page report it handed to city officials on Jan. 11.
More than 10 years after CityTime was launched, it "is not only overdue, overpriced and wrought with allegations of fraud, but today we learned that it doesn't even come with a user manual," city Controller John Liu said in statement.
Mayor Bloomberg agreed to commission the KPMG study in September to win Liu's approval for extending until June the deadline for SAIC to finish rolling out CityTime to the full target population of 165,000 city workers.
The city Office of Payroll Administration is jointly run by the controller and the mayor, so the vote of both men is needed for any new contract.
"All deficiencies caused by the vendor [should be] cured at no additional cost to taxpayers," Liu insisted yesterday.
It is absurd, however, that a private company created timekeeping and payroll system for public workers that only it can operate.
Federal prosecutors recently subpoenaed SAIC's own records as part of their continuing probe of the project.
Now we learn that for $700 million, the city got a system it can't operate itself.
Bloomberg would never allow an outside vendor to exercise such unprecedented control over the computer systems of his own company.
So why does he accept it for the payroll system of New York City workers?
21 comments:
4th term anyone?
What a terrific argument for privatization! Imagine how much money City Time saved vs. having the government do this for itself.
So much for the "privatize everything" crowd.
From Wikipedia:
Michael Rubens Bloomberg (born February 14, 1942), commonly known as Bloomy, is the current Mayor of New York City, and the 10th richest person in the United States, having net worth of US$18 billion in 2010. He is the founder and 88% owner of Bloomberg L.P., a financial news and information services media company.
Wealth
In March 2009, Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion since the previous year, which makes him one of the most successful billionaires in the United States during the recession, and a person enjoying the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009. At that time, there were only four fortunes in the U.S. that were larger (although the Wal-Mart family fortune is split among four people). Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 - March 2009).
February 14th birthday? That doesn't leave us with a lot of time to get a card and gift. This year I'd like to give him the finger!
In March 2009, Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion since the previous year, which makes him one of the most successful billionaires in the United States during the recession, and a person enjoying the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009.
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And all this time we thought he was our mayor. No wonder why this city is so screwed up. His "subordinates" are screwing us while he's making tons of money. Do I hear impeachment?
Is that the best you can do?
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!
You voted for him so you should know. I sure as hell didn't.
You voted for him so you should know. I sure as hell didn't.
...............................................
Oh yeah? That's what you think! I'm so corrupt even I didn't vote for me!
Nyahahahahahahahahaha!
Schmucks!
All this guy has done is line the pockets of his developer friends, with a cut for him of course, and decimate New York City. He's the reason for overdevelopment. All he cares about are his friends and all the illegals. Doesn't give a crap about the middle class.
It's not only NYC - it just seems to be part of modern-day politics that money laundering taxpayer money into the hands of private contractors is the norm- there was a show on Frontline last week about the Department of Homeland Security that touched on this.
Conservative politicians get the American public all riled up about programs like health care that are to OUR benefit, all the while bleeding us dry for stuff that benefits foreign companies like Halliburton.
Uh oh! I think they're on to me...
It's absurd that only the vendor knows how to operate the payroll system.
Someone approved the statement of work (SOW) prior to signing an agreement. @700 million I guess that the Mayor did, right?
Look at that profile and bulging veins in his head. Is he even human?
You guys are funny. Guess none of you remember the Shity in the 1970s and early 80s. Bloomy got elected. If he's so horrible, next time he won't be. Who do you want-- Al Sharpton, or some other "Community Activist" screaming kill all the white people? The City is better than it's been in decades.
Actually, the City was better under Giuliani. At least people had jobs, could somewhat afford to live here, the crime problem was taken care of and city pride was restored. Now we have a playground for millionaires and shit for the rest of us, no jobs, more crime (yeah, I know what the phony stats say) and embarrassment at living in a city that couldn't handle a simple snowstorm.
Yeah I mean if they were going to extend term limits because no one else could handle the city, they should have done it for Rudy.
You guys are funny. Guess none of you remember the Shity in the 1970s and early 80s. Bloomy got elected. If he's so horrible, next time he won't be. Who do you want-- Al Sharpton, or some other "Community Activist" screaming kill all the white people? The City is better than it's been in decades.
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Look!
Up in the sky!
It's a turd,
it's insane,
It's
S U P E R T R O L L ! ! !
Bloomy got elected. If he's so horrible, next time he won't be.
WTF?
"What a terrific argument for privatization! Imagine how much money City Time saved vs. having the government do this for itself."
Spot on.
God knows how many necessary city employees this shit storm could have paid for.
Oops! I think I just soiled myself...again. Does the look on my face give it away?
What Bloomturd gets is fully funded offshore accounts, the largess being provided by those selfsame developers, contractors and publishers to whom he has beholden the city for G-d only knows how long into the future.Bermuda trips are to check the health of his stash w/o prying eyes and hackers getting into his business. See, he's costing all of us a whole lot more than his nominal $1 per year salary. He'll eventually jet off into the sunset for the last time, leaving us to foot the bill for all this, all the while enjoying the reputation of a philanthropist, scattering crumbs of his ill gotten gains like the robber baron he is. Impeachment or recall, anyone?
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