Did HP Defraud the Canadian Government?

lightsaber1 writes "In this age of financial scandal in the Canadian Government it's hardly surprising to see that Hewlett-Packard is now being accused of charging the Canadian Department of National Defence for more than $160 million in software, hardware, and labour that was not delivered. The DND is confident it will get the money back, but HP is denying all responsibility, pinning the blame on an error within the DND itself. In all of this it is clear that the Government can lose track of a lot of money easily and even large companies are not above a little fraud now and then."

Comments

Yeh, I'd be pissed off too.

[MrRTFM]

That amount of money should at least cover the maintenance contract to get a teenager in a suit to come and clean the filter on the power supplies of at least 3 mini's.

Oh, you said HP? Sorry, I thought you meant Data General. Coz, back a few years we used to pay a *hell* of a lot of money just to get a couple of filters cleaned.

Exchange rate?

[Bobdoer]

$160 million in software, hardware, and labour
So after the exchange rate, what's that in moose?

What?

[Malicious]

As a red blooded Canadian, I have only one question to ask.

Who gave the Canadian Department of National Defence $160,000,000?

Re:What?

[G-funk]

Hey man, you never know when oil will be discovered north of the border :-)

*ducks*

Large companies and fraud

[Rick Zeman]

"...even large companies are not above a little fraud now and then."

Seems like lots of large companies these days seem to specialize in fraud. I won't mention Halliburton or anyone else accused of defrauding the US government.

Re:Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

more than $160 million in software

Why, that's over 10 years of the Canadian national defense budget. Is this possible? Looking at the 2003 budget:

Molson Ale $11.2 mil
Tuques $3.5 mil
Flags $1.8 mil
Fireworks $1.2 mil
Bullwinkle Horns $0.8 mil
Girls Gone Wild video $0.3 mil

Of course, that's in Canadian dollars. US money, it's only $34.12.

Canada has a department of defense?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell do they need that? It's not like anybody hates Canada. I mean, why do you think US citizens put maple leafs on their backpacks when they travel around Europe?

The US - yeah, we need a big defense department the way we go around pissing everybody off. But not Canada. They're like a harmless little mouse.

Re:Fraud? Seems like old times...

[Pig Hogger]

In a company I once worked for was a rather nice fellow who worked in the Accounts Payable department. It was discovered that he would have checks issued for as many times as an invoice arrived. Apparently some vendors noticed this and items were paid for as many as 4 times. That they knew what was going on and didn't report it back suggests ethics is a broad problem. Many refused to return the money once it was revealed they had collected multiple times.

Reminds me of that jewish joke:

Pappa, what is "business ethics"???

Oh, my son, this is a very important concept. Hmmm, let's see. Suppose a customer left the store and dropped a $20 bill on the floor and did not notice. This is when business ethics comes into play: should you tell your partner or not???

Recursive court case?

[Tablizer]

Gov: We want our money back for the stuff you didn't deliver.

HP: It is too late. You waited too long to ask.

Gov: But we didn't have the software and servers to track stuff, and so didn't know fast enough.

HP: Well, why didn't you get such a computer system?

Gov: Because you haven't delivered it yet.

Are you pondering what I'm pondering...

[Ilan Volow]

If Carly Fiorina becomes Martha Stewart's cell mate, can we expect some tasteful lavendar-scented gingham-pattern HP boxes in the near future?

I think the record will clearly show

[Greyfox]

That two ink cartridges were, in fact, delivered.

Hey what do you want for $161 million?