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DC Fires Tech Contractors, Puts Employees On Leave
theodp writes "After Gov. Tim Kaine intervened on his behalf, Vivek Kundra was quietly reinstated to his Federal CIO post on Tuesday after a brief leave following an FBI raid on Kundra's former DC office (Kundra was not implicated). Now, the Washington Post reports that the City of DC plans to fire 23 Technology Office contractors and place 4 employees on leave in the aftermath of the arrests of a Security manager and contractor on bribery charges last week. Another government employee has since been arrested for his role in the scam, and the mayor has promised that the tech office will undergo a 'full and formal review.'"
Anybody want to hire a C programmer? I'll be available effective next Friday.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
The burden to adjust is not on the system but upon the individual. If they chose not integrate that is their problem. The law should make no excuses for anyone. These were, presumably, very intelligent people, where they were from cannot be an excuse.
Neither can being a politician in a corrupt system. We must make people accountable for their actions once again.
"Sushil Bansal, the contractor who owns Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation."
"Seventeen of the contractors work for AITC"
That's where the problems lies - a contractor hiring other contractors through his own company. Interferes with the proper chain of management and encourages bad practices and fraud.
Last year recently turned down a contract at a very large supplier to a UK government agency in part because I was being compelled to work through the company owned by one of the other contractors on the project. From colleagues on the project I heard that the guy was a hard task master and never allowed his team to engage in any upfront design work. Of course they did what he asked because he was paying them directly, when they should have acted more professionally and insisted on some proper design work.
A year later - he's been let go, not sure what's happened to the people who worked through him - and the project is collapsing.
DC is a federal protectorate.
Any type of home rule that DC residents get is at the whim of the federal government.
Don't like it? Change the US Constitution. At least if the Constitution means anything to you, anyway. (If you think DC should be represented at the federal level without having to change the US Constitution, quite frankly that means for you the US Constitution is meaningless...)
The seat of power in the US was deliberately NOT put in any state for some very good reasons.
With a massive scandal like this, if he wasn't involved and didn't know he couldn't have been all that involved with his office.
The long-winded procedures in fact discourage honesty. They encourage systemic fraud.
We've got four basic possibilities here:
1. Kundra was actively involved in the fraud.
2. Kundra knew about the fraud and did nothing about it.
3. Kundra didn't know about the fraud.
4. Kundra knew about the fraud and reported it to police.
We know the fourth isn't true - the investigation was started when they tried to bribe a contractor.
The first two mean that Kundra is corrupt and not fit for office. The third means that Kundra is incompetent and not fit for office.
Since we've eliminated the fourth possibility, all the remaining possibilities mean that Kundra is not fit for office.