NYC Drops $722M On CityTime Attendance System

theodp writes "New York City is reportedly paying 230 consultants an average annual salary of $400K for a computer project that is seven years behind schedule and vastly over budget. The payments continue despite Mayor Bloomberg's admission that the computerized timekeeping and payroll system — dubbed CityTime — is 'a disaster.' Eleven CityTime consultants rake in more than $600K annually, with three of them making as much as $676,000. The 40 highest-paid people on the project bill taxpayers at least $500K a year. Some of the consultants have been working at these rates for as long as a decade."

Comments

Slaves

[BadAnalogyGuy]

What is the purpose of an attendance system? To make sure someone is getting to work on time and not leaving before quitting time?

Sometimes people say that government employees should have greater scrutiny due to their being paid by the taxpayers, but I'm uncomfortable turning them into slaves.

Re:Slaves

[BadAnalogyGuy]

Voluntary servitude in a private business is none of my business.

In a public service role, I'd rather not see my tax dollars directly supporting such a system.

If Governments Didn't Waste Money,

[turkeyfish]

If Governments Didn't Waste Money, where would all the lucrative contracts that keep Wall Streeters and Fortune 500 corporations in fat City?

Its not as if a rag-tag army of teabaggers is going to step in and bring in the bacon from now on. That would be a recipe for total economic collapse in GDP. Besides their share of kickbacks to a Bloomberg reelection would be minuscule anyway nor would their software make coffee for the mayor every morning.

However, it does leave one wondering what happened to that old technology "the punch clock". You wouldn't think it would cost 758 million dollars to upgrade it.

Re:Government Project Cost Overruns?

[Vellmont]

Hence, in the original post, the teacher that was laid off still gets paid almost as much as before.

Uhh... haven't you ever heard of unemployment insurance. (Hint, this is a benefit everyone but the self-employed gets and has nothing to do with teachers unions). The only reason the person in question received 2/3 of their original salary is because the original salary was shit to begin with (unemployment benefits are generally capped to a relatively small amount).

The ignorance of some people just astounds me. Your entire argument is based on nothing of substance. You are a prime example of willful ignorance.