Posted on 03/26/2005 3:48:11 AM PST by sure_fine
WASHINGTON — Some homeland security experts and lawmakers are wondering how a post-Sept. 11 promise to improve the nation’s intelligence-gathering capabilities hit a monumental snag this month as the FBI announced it is scrapping a $170 million computer overhaul after nearly four years in the making.
"If you can't get the simple things right and on time, what does that say about your ability to deal with the larger problem of defending the country against terrorists?" asked Charles Pena, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
The FBI said it plans to scrap the multi-million dollar Virtual Case File project, which was built to create a massive, integrated software system for agents to access and share case files and other resources.
The agency's inspector general announced in February that the program just isn't capable of delivering. FBI Director Robert Mueller ultimately took responsibility for the debacle, even though he told congressional members he blames, in part, the contractors who worked on the job and internal managers.
"Our ability to handle a project like that was not what I thought it was," Mueller told the House Appropriations Committee on March 8. "It's my fault for not having put the appropriate persons in position to review that contract and assure it was on track."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Heads would roll if this happened in the private sector.
As for government?
Eh, not to worry. There's more money where that came from.
It is not unusual.
70% of large-scale IT projects are overbudget and 30% are scrapped before they are finished.
100% of them don't deliver what was promised or expected of course.
Is it REALLY that difficult? Why don't they use PROMIS?
Maybe they better try shopping at Frye's or Computer City for hardware and off the rack software?
I hear there is a program called Excel that can handle data.
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