Oracle Sues 5 Oregon Officials For 'Improper Influence'

SpzToid writes: Following up on an earlier Slashdot story, the Oracle Corporation has filed a rather timely suit against five of former governor John Kitzhaber's staff for their "improper influence" in the decision to shutter the Cover Oregon healthcare website, while blaming Oracle to defuse the political consequences. Oracle argues the website was ready to go before the state decided to switch to the federal exchange in April.

"The work on the exchange was complete by February 2014, but going live with the website and providing a means for all Oregonians to sign up for health insurance coverage didn't match the former-Governor's re-election strategy to 'go after' Oracle," Oracle spokeswoman Deborah Hellinger said in a statement.

Kitzhaber resigned last week amid criminal probes into an influence-peddling scandal involving allegations that his fiancée used her position in his office for personal gain.

Comments

lmfao

[Anonymous Coward]

Oracle was getting sued for taking Oregon's money, and not having the exchange be fully functional when it was required in 2013. Oregon had to process all apps by hand or over the phone, because the website wasn't functional.

That sounds like a reason to can Oracle in favor of another option. Oracle defrauded and scammed Oregon, selling us a faulty product.

obamasweapon.com

Re:lmfao

[Anonymous Coward]

Here was the reason for needing the exchange. As ObamaCare was brand new, there was an anticipation of a huge wave of sign ups. And needing a way to process those requests. Oregon did its usual bidding thing, Oracle was the bidder selected for the project saying they would provide a working exchange by the 2013 sign ups. The site was incomplete and didn't work. Oregon scrambled, ended up doing all the work by hand/phone. Oracle's promises never came true and they delayed and delayed, by Feb 2014 sign ups were practically done and over. The need for the site was done, and they set up the alternative ways of doing sign ups in order to meet the deadlines.

There oracle is with its project no one wanted anymore, and it had less value because Oregon already got through its first wave of health care sign ups. Subsequently there was less need for a health care exchange going forward, Oracle bombed. Oregon decided to sue oracle to recooperate the money paid to Oracle for the failed project, which amounted to Oracle being paid for nothing. Oregonian's felt their tax money had been squandered by Oracle, I don't know of anyone who doesn't feel that way.

obamasweapon.com

Re:Can someone explain this?

[hey!]

What they're alleging is that political staffers interfered with the project to help the governor's election chances.

As much as I believe Oracle is the spawn of Satan, if the governor's aides and staffers did that Oracle would have a reasonable complaint. When you sign a system development contract you agree to deliver a system and the client agrees to pay you. If you someone induces your client not to accept a system that meets the criteria, that's what lawyers call a "tort". It's something you can justifiably sue over.

Likewise there are many ways political operatives could potentially sabotage a project, and that'd be actionable too. Any non-trivial development project is dependent upon the client acting in good faith. They have to act as if they want the system. It's extremely easy for a client to cause a project to fail, by raising an endless stream of trivial complaints or by dragging its feet in its responsibilities like acceptance testing or giving feedback. It'd be all to easy for well-placed political operatives to undermine the bureaucracy's willingness to cooperate.

That said, in *this* particular instance the suit sounds like business as usual for Oracle, in other words acting like bastards.