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Outgoing Federal CIO Warns of 'IT Cartel' In DC

Posted by Soulskill on from the interweb-industrial-complex dept.

CWmike writes "In a wide-ranging discussion Friday with President Barack Obama's top science advisors, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra warned of the dangers of open data access and was sharply critical of government IT contracting, telling the committee: '...We almost have an IT cartel within federal IT' made up of very few companies that benefit from government spending 'because they understand the procurement process better than anyone else.' He added: 'It's not because they provide better technology.'"

8 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. And this applies exclusively to IT. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not any other area of federal contracting. No sir, this is exclusively an IT problem...

    1. Re:And this applies exclusively to IT. by robbyb20 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Sorry, but hes the CIO. He should have no comment on any other part of the government since what he says wouldnt be valued by the public eye since its "not his area of expertise" We are lucky he even said this. Should the CIO of a company be calling out the Marketing Dept? How about HR?

    2. Re:And this applies exclusively to IT. by kaizendojo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I would hope that the janitor would be able to call out the CIO if he found him to be wasting company resources. At least that's th way W. Edwards Deming saw it, and I've always been inclined to agree. He said that the most important people in the company are usually the lowest on the corporate pyramid because they have day to day contact with the customer. All workers need to be empowered to be part of the quality control equation becuase they all function within the system. It seems to have worked quite well for Japan and many of the other Asian nations...

    3. Re:And this applies exclusively to IT. by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This whole BS MBA compartmentalized mentality is killing America.

      I sooo much prefer the "Palinization" spewing word salad on any topic imaginable that they know nothing about...

      --
      People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
    4. Re:And this applies exclusively to IT. by ChronoFish · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't need to be a baker to know when you've had a bad pie.

      -CF

  2. How can you take him seriously? by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "My view is we should only have three major data centers across the entire U.S. government," said Kundra.

    Set aside the procurement debate for a moment and let this one quote sink in. Three data centers is not enough to give each of the branches of the military its own dedicated data center for operations. There are five (technically) branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. Each one of those should have at least one "major data center" except maybe the Coast Guard.

    Let's face it, Kundra doesn't appear to be any better than the very people he's criticizing.

    1. Re:How can you take him seriously? by Amouth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So i assume the pentagon is a horrid idea and that we should never have the leaders of these branches in the same area as each other?

      aside from your "cruse missile" (which by the way would work just as well now as it would then) comment the other stuff is already covered inside a data center - just because the info is in the same building doesn't mean the networks talk to each other - nor does it mean one side knows what the other is doing..

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
  3. Regulatory Capture by TheSync · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "'because they understand the procurement process better than anyone else.' He added: 'It's not because they provide better technology.'""

    This is another example of Regulatory Capture, where private entities use the regulatory process created for the public interest to forward their private interests.

    Whenever we open up complex regulatory regimes (such as the incredibly insane Federal government procurement process, campaign finance regulations, etc.), inevitably someone will figure out how to game the system for their private benefit.

    The best regulations are simple ones, as complexity breeds gaming. Complex regulations also encourage corruption on the government side as well.