This wasn’t really a no bid situation. CGI was chosen from amongst a slate of possible vendors under HHS’s version of the DHS EAGLE contracting vehicle.
The real issue here is that government contractors are under (or stick to) the GSA schedule for hourly rates. The government tends to pay 1/2 or even 1/3 what the private sector pays for comparable titles, responsibilities and duties. That means that for most larger software companies government work is a volume bases business that anchors their financials allowing them to make their revenues up with good margins for private sector work.
But it also means that they don’t put the best/brightest (read: better paid) staff onto government engagements.
So, again, nothing to really see here from a conspiracy perspective. Absolutely predictable in fact. But also really good ground on which to continue the fight against Obamacare.
DHS Eagle enables no-bid situations such as this one.
The real, real problem is the way contractors know how to stretch things out, once they’ve landed the contract, to come in five times over budget.
I hope this crap gets tossed in a hurry, however, so I don’t really care that it’s so bad as to not really be functional.