On The Case
Almost everybody knows about the contracting fiasco over the FBI.
The nation's premier law enforcement agency spent $170 million on a computer system, dubbed Virtual Case File, that was so bad that agents had to rely on old fashioned paper. Contractor SAIC told Congress that it had warned the FBI it was taking a "trial and error" approach that would not work. An internal audit found that the system delivered by SAIC was virtually unusable.
Less well known is the fact that the rebound effort, led by Lockheed Martin, is now going relatively well. In some ways, the FBI's $425 million effort to develop the new system known as Sentinel even sets a good example for the procurement world. This according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.
The FBI, which has a long history of IT struggles, has in this case "followed best practices" in how it solicited offers from contractors, evaluated those offers and worked to identify problems early and often, the GAO tells us. The feds have also "undertaken a range of activities to effectively define expectations for the prime contractor" and "to hold the contractor accountable for meeting these expectations."
To be sure, there are still problems. Can't expect miracles to emerge from the ashes, right?
The FBI is not keeping a close enough eye on "its many support contractors." It's also not estimating the costs of work in a way that GAO thinks is appropriate. That's in part because the FBI's program management handbook is incomplete. Besides, the FBI "did not follow its own handbook in estimating Sentinel's costs."
In a Federal Computer Week article Tuesday, an FBI official disagreed with some of the GAO criticism.
But the official said the agency is on the case and will update their handbook.
By Robert O'Harrow |
August 9, 2007; 7:14 AM ET
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Posted by: Michael Lent | August 9, 2007 8:34 AM
just another example of how our government works, try something new even if it has warnings of failure. must be some darn good lobbyists aroud somewhere
Posted by: darcy | August 14, 2007 10:49 AM
Such an obvious fiasco and yet SAIC seems no worse for the wear? What is it about this company that they can be involved in such debacles and exhibit such incompetence yet continue to win lucrative government contracts? Let's not forget about the Greek Olympics disaster. The Greek government sued SAIC for failing to provide adequate security and the Greek government won, but once again it does not make the headlines.
Posted by: MMStraus | August 15, 2007 3:28 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
As citizen-taxpayers, we can only keep our fingers crossed that Sentinel will succeed, as it is vital to boosting FBI efficiency and effectiveness.
Re the Virtual Case File, we should not lose track of the effort by Justice/FBI to recover a hunk of the $104 million paid to SAIC. Both parties remain mum on the subject, and a government audit to establish the possible damage was done months ago. It will be up to the Senate Judiciary Committee, to which FBI Director Mueller promised he would ask Justice to look into a recovery, to create the pressure to drive the matter to a conclusion.
While the recovery is a laudable effort, however, it will be difficult because the VCF contract was not a firm fixed price vehicle. In other words,a working system was not a contract deliverable, and FBI certainly did its part to make the VCF a failure.
Risk sharing between contractors and the government remains a huge issue in IT systems development and integration programs.