The federal spending rant...

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

Two bit tinhorn government managers need to be made accountable for their incompetence somehow.
There is certainly a lot of this. But, the bigger problem is the nature of government bureaucracy. It's a Rube Goldberg machine where each step is its own fiefdom of inefficiency.

The dozen systems I work on are 1990s technology (not blue). So, they are as broken as one would imagine 25-year old systems would be. Also, Internet connectivity is Third World quality. The Internet is down at least two hours a day and sometimes all day.

Regarding the antiquated systems ... I only got access to these systems last week, so my first three months here I could do nothing productive. (These delays in getting the ability to do my job have existed every place I've been in the government and have matched the experiences of everyone I've talked to about this.)

To get access to some of these systems I had to sign various forms, which then make their way through the various fiefdoms for signature. Funny thing is that some "smart" person (in an attempt to make things go faster) put a time limit on the system user (me, in this case) to get all signatures. Except neither I nor anyone else have any leverage over any of these far-flung fiefdoms to make them move at a decent pace. Did this "solution" help? Of course not. I had to sign and send in the forms four times before the last signature was finally captured within this artificial time limit.

And on and on.

People should want a lot less of this, not more.
 
Last edited:

crimsonaudio

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Re: The federal spending thread

It's REALLY easy to spend other people's money. It's much harder to spend unwisely when you have real skin in the game.

There's no getting past that.
 

AlistarWills

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Re: Bodhi's federal spending rant...

Yeah, there's over $25,000 worth of iPads and $10,000 worth of toner sitting in their unopened boxes (going on year 2) right down the hall from my office. Did I mention the lease agreement we have with the copier company has toner accounted for in the lease? But here we are.
This if doubly bad....toner has an expiration date. So it’s gonna go bad an no one is going to be able to use it.
 

cbi1972

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Re: Bodhi's federal spending rant...

This if doubly bad....toner has an expiration date. So it’s gonna go bad an no one is going to be able to use it.
They must have changed something in the composition because I used an old HP LaserJet for at least 8 years from 1994-2002 and I don't think I ever changed out the toner. I very seldom printed, but that thing was bulletproof and would have lasted forever, if parallel ports had continued to be standard.
 

Blueguitar

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Re: The federal spending thread

I guess NBC discontinued this series but I always enjoyed it knwing someone was trying to bring attention to wasted tax dollars.

Brokaw started it - then Williams revived it....then it was gone.


FWIW, the report is a little old, and the airport seems to be more successful these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MidAmerica_St._Louis_Airport#Maintenance_and_operations

Still could be a bust I suppose. But it sounds more like a bet on future air travel needs that didn't work out due to factors that couldn't have been foreseen. That happens with private sector projects as well. Also a better example of local and state misspending than bungling by the feds, since I don't see anything suggesting that federal tax dollars were spent on this.
 

AlistarWills

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Re: Bodhi's federal spending rant...

Those old printers were indeed bulletproof. HP must have needed more income so the new wizbang models don’t last nearly as long.
They must have changed something in the composition because I used an old HP LaserJet for at least 8 years from 1994-2002 and I don't think I ever changed out the toner. I very seldom printed, but that thing was bulletproof and would have lasted forever, if parallel ports had continued to be standard.
 

TIDE-HSV

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Re: The federal spending thread

FWIW, the report is a little old, and the airport seems to be more successful these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MidAmerica_St._Louis_Airport#Maintenance_and_operations

Still could be a bust I suppose. But it sounds more like a bet on future air travel needs that didn't work out due to factors that couldn't have been foreseen. That happens with private sector projects as well. Also a better example of local and state misspending than bungling by the feds, since I don't see anything suggesting that federal tax dollars were spent on this.
Um...

LINK
 

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

Two bit tinhorn government managers need to be made accountable for their incompetence somehow.
I thought of another example that speaks to this post. At the previous program where I worked, we had a lot of (mostly IT) service contracts. (More than half of government contracts are now for services.) A colleague of mine managed this contract, and it became apparent almost immediately that the small business that won the contract lied about the quality of their employees. In sum, they didn't have the training/education to do the job properly. The contractor's owner low-balled on price and won the contract. If my colleague had checked the resumes (and asked questions) about the proposed individuals who would be on the contract, the contractor would have never won the award. On something like this, lowest price doesn't win. It's the lowest price among technically acceptable proposals. Determining technical acceptability - asking some questions - is hard, I guess.

So, the incompetent company won the contract and did not do the job they were hired to do. The government can terminate the contract, but you have to document the problems and give the contractor a chance to cure the problems. No one wanted to put their complaints about the company in writing. Everyone quickly knew the company sucked, but none really wanted to do anything about it (other that pointlessly whine). Contracts like this are for a year with multiple option years. At worst, just don't exercise the option and the company goes away in a year. Nope, we exercised the first option. Why? Well, it would take some effort to go through the award process again. So, for two years (at the time I left) we had some contractors who did little more than wander around collecting well over six figure salaries each. They did no substantive work. And the government let them do it - encouraged it even.

My colleague and several other managers (the complainers who wouldn't step up) should have lost their jobs for such incompetence. But, that's not the way the government rolls. Just a few million dollars in waste. No biggie.
 

NationalTitles18

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Re: The federal spending thread

FWIW, the report is a little old, and the airport seems to be more successful these days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MidAmerica_St._Louis_Airport#Maintenance_and_operations

Still could be a bust I suppose. But it sounds more like a bet on future air travel needs that didn't work out due to factors that couldn't have been foreseen. That happens with private sector projects as well. Also a better example of local and state misspending than bungling by the feds, since I don't see anything suggesting that federal tax dollars were spent on this.
They didn't mention landing fees or places to eat, but that looks like a good place to refuel on a cross-country. :D
 

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

The VA has received a lot of attention in recent years for incompetence that's offensive even by government standards. When I was looking to move to Florida I looked into VA jobs. No dice. One cannot get series 1101 or 1102 jobs (and maybe a lot more) with the VA unless you already work for the VA. You would think the concept of bringing in fresh blood to help change a retarded culture would be part of a common sense solution. Nope. The house is burning; lock everyone inside.
 

CharminTide

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Re: The federal spending thread

The VA has received a lot of attention in recent years for incompetence that's offensive even by government standards. When I was looking to move to Florida I looked into VA jobs. No dice. One cannot get series 1101 or 1102 jobs (and maybe a lot more) with the VA unless you already work for the VA. You would think the concept of bringing in fresh blood to help change a retarded culture would be part of a common sense solution. Nope. The house is burning; lock everyone inside.
At the risk of joining the "complain about everything" thread...

The VA is a strange bird. I was offered a VA job, but I'd worked there during training long enough to know I didn't want it. The computer systems some of the departments use are a special kind of dumb. Most patient-facing doctors and nurses use something resembling a modern GUI. However the pathology department has to enter its reports using a DOS-based interface with no GUI, which hasn't been updated since the 1980s. It's so time consuming that we hand-write our reports and give them to secretarial staff who input them for us (a job that shouldn't exist). The most efficient way to review the reports for accuracy is to print them off since there is no convenient way to review them on the screen (I've never seen so much paper and toner wasted everyday). Because each report is handed off twice, it takes longer to release them to clinicians (anything I hand the staff after 4pm isn't getting entered until the next day). And since the entry staff has no medical training (and most doctors have terrible handwriting), they will sometimes confuse benign diagnoses with malignant ones; if I don't catch their mistake when proof-reading, bad things happen.

Solution: just install a freaking modern computer system. It would increase efficiency, improve patient care, elevate moral in the department (everyone hates this workflow), save money by cutting jobs that only exist to interface with an outdated system, and as a bonus, greatly decrease printer usage.

Hm, maybe you're right. That was a little cathartic.
 

NationalTitles18

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Re: The federal spending thread

At the risk of joining the "complain about everything" thread...

The VA is a strange bird. I was offered a VA job, but I'd worked there during training long enough to know I didn't want it. The computer systems some of the departments use are a special kind of dumb. Most patient-facing doctors and nurses use something resembling a modern GUI. However the pathology department has to enter its reports using a DOS-based interface with no GUI, which hasn't been updated since the 1980s. It's so time consuming that we hand-write our reports and give them to secretarial staff who input them for us (a job that shouldn't exist). The most efficient way to review the reports for accuracy is to print them off since there is no convenient way to review them on the screen (I've never seen so much paper and toner wasted everyday). Because each report is handed off twice, it takes longer to release them to clinicians (anything I hand the staff after 4pm isn't getting entered until the next day). And since the entry staff has no medical training (and most doctors have terrible handwriting), they will sometimes confuse benign diagnoses with malignant ones; if I don't catch their mistake when proof-reading, bad things happen.

Solution: just install a freaking modern computer system. It would increase efficiency, improve patient care, elevate moral in the department (everyone hates this workflow), save money by cutting jobs that only exist to interface with an outdated system, and as a bonus, greatly decrease printer usage.

Hm, maybe you're right. That was a little cathartic.
The VA is horrible in so many ways and a disservice to those who served. Every veteran regardless of location should get a card they can take anywhere that will take it. I see several veterans on the VCP that would otherwise have to travel 200 miles or so to the closest VA center much more often.

My dad went to the Tuscaloosa VA for medications mainly, and the process was quite inefficient. His doctor's Rx couldn't just go to the pharmacy - the VA provider had to write another Rx for the same thing and that would be filled. Don't know if that has changed.

When I worked at a hospital in Alabama we had a patient that needed surgery. He was transferred to the VA but they failed to perform it and he came back to us. We called them and they wanted us to ship the patient out of state to another VA for the surgery and by this time the need was more urgent so the surgeon just went ahead and did it, understanding they may or may not pay. This, after more time and suffering than should have been. In the case of at least the VA, it's not just money wasted but dysfunction that causes suffering.

That outdated computer system and all that goes with it is just the tip of the iceberg.
 

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

At the risk of joining the "complain about everything" thread...

The VA is a strange bird. I was offered a VA job, but I'd worked there during training long enough to know I didn't want it. The computer systems some of the departments use are a special kind of dumb. Most patient-facing doctors and nurses use something resembling a modern GUI. However the pathology department has to enter its reports using a DOS-based interface with no GUI, which hasn't been updated since the 1980s. It's so time consuming that we hand-write our reports and give them to secretarial staff who input them for us (a job that shouldn't exist). The most efficient way to review the reports for accuracy is to print them off since there is no convenient way to review them on the screen (I've never seen so much paper and toner wasted everyday). Because each report is handed off twice, it takes longer to release them to clinicians (anything I hand the staff after 4pm isn't getting entered until the next day). And since the entry staff has no medical training (and most doctors have terrible handwriting), they will sometimes confuse benign diagnoses with malignant ones; if I don't catch their mistake when proof-reading, bad things happen.

Solution: just install a freaking modern computer system. It would increase efficiency, improve patient care, elevate moral in the department (everyone hates this workflow), save money by cutting jobs that only exist to interface with an outdated system, and as a bonus, greatly decrease printer usage.

Hm, maybe you're right. That was a little cathartic.
When my wife was doing her clinical rotations as part of her anesthesia program, she did a semester at a Navy hospital. She had similar stories about how antiquated the computer systems were. So much time was wasted doing handwritten reports. And, like you mentioned regarding people's handwriting, the chances of harming a patient due to mistranslation were high. Unacceptable.

Without the life or death consequences, the systems I use are relics and a mess. Hours every day are wasted waiting for something to work properly. Ridiculous.
 

Tidewater

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Re: The federal spending thread

At the risk of joining the "complain about everything" thread...

The VA is a strange bird. I was offered a VA job, but I'd worked there during training long enough to know I didn't want it. The computer systems some of the departments use are a special kind of dumb. Most patient-facing doctors and nurses use something resembling a modern GUI. However the pathology department has to enter its reports using a DOS-based interface with no GUI, which hasn't been updated since the 1980s. It's so time consuming that we hand-write our reports and give them to secretarial staff who input them for us (a job that shouldn't exist). The most efficient way to review the reports for accuracy is to print them off since there is no convenient way to review them on the screen (I've never seen so much paper and toner wasted everyday). Because each report is handed off twice, it takes longer to release them to clinicians (anything I hand the staff after 4pm isn't getting entered until the next day). And since the entry staff has no medical training (and most doctors have terrible handwriting), they will sometimes confuse benign diagnoses with malignant ones; if I don't catch their mistake when proof-reading, bad things happen.

Solution: just install a freaking modern computer system. It would increase efficiency, improve patient care, elevate moral in the department (everyone hates this workflow), save money by cutting jobs that only exist to interface with an outdated system, and as a bonus, greatly decrease printer usage.

Hm, maybe you're right. That was a little cathartic.
Having been a "customer" in both DoD and VA medical systems, I was stunned to find out that the computer systems DoD uses to track medical treatment are not compatible with those used by VA. I asked the records clerk at VA, "Where the heck to VA 'customers' come from anyway? I'd bet 99% of VA records come from DoD medical systems." He just shrugged. I had to redo numerous tests in the VA system that I had already done in the DoD system. Big waste of money in a department that is supposedly strapped for money.
 

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

Well, we have no working printers in the entire building. Seems that maintenance was no part of the contract, and over the last year or so they have been going down one by one. No worries. We can print to another building that's 20 minutes away. Left early today to get my docs off the printer. They are in my car now, and I will take them to my desk when I get back to work in the morning.

Yay government!
 

Bodhisattva

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Re: The federal spending thread

My daughter and I moved to Ponte Vedra Beach in October. My wife will be in Virginia another month fulfilling her contract, but she submitted her paperwork for her Florida license when we moved here. She's still waiting on the state to process her paperwork. The process is so slow that she's had to re-do her fingerprints. Why? Because the rule is that the prints can't be more than three months old .... because one's fingerprints are constantly evolving, I guess. In another week or two she'll have to do them again at additional expense. My wife will call, talk to one bureaucrat, and is told all her paperwork is in and the issuance of the license is imminent. When nothing happens she'll call, talk to a different bureaucrat, and is told she's missing some document (that she has proof she already submitted). Approaching six months of this nonsense. If this goes on much longer she'll have to decide whether to stay where she is and keep working or move down here and not work for a to be determined length of time.

After getting off the phone recently with another bureaucrat, she asked me in frustration, "Why are these people so stupid?" I told her that it's the government, and the people who run it are stupid because they can be without repercussions.

It's not as bad as some states, however. A colleague of hers once applied for a nursing license in Massachusetts. It took her a year to have them process the paperwork.

Government is awesome. We should have more of it.
 

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