Slashdot Mirror
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.
"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.
There should be an investigation into why Oracle was ever tendered the contract in the first place. It couldn't have been on merit. I have never met, or heard of, anyone who outsourced to Oracle and was pleased with the result. They have the worst reputation in the business. I trust Microsoft more than I trust Oracle.
Exactly. Kitzhaber was a Democrat on paper, but he is a Republican. That party rules this state with an iron fist. They control nearly every aspect of our day to day lives. They decided that only the rich are entitled to healthcare so they kept it from us. Oracle was ordered to make a site that didn't work. Kitzhaber recently had to resign in disgrace after getting caught being involved with tax fraud. The IRS is investigating him. That obviously makes him a Republican. He might not be on paper, but he is one of their kind. They hate us.
I must admit that I'm torn on this one. Who to cheer for? A corrupt politician or Oracle? Can we have a no-holds-barred cage match and shoot the winner in the head?
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Whatever Oracle is accused of, if the accusations are related to incompetence, they are probably true. However states and businesses keep keep handing over billions in dollars in contracts to these large IT organizations because those organizations can check all the boxes on the paperwork. The core competency of Oracle, is winning bids which has nothing to do with delivering the end product. Winning the bid and building the system/service are 2 completely different and unrelated enterprises. 2 entirely different parts of both the customer and vendor organizations are involved in these 2 unrelated efforts. Oracle is a sales organization. For Oracle, the project is over when the contract is signed and the sales team has already moved onto the next meal. Everything is then shipped off to low cost armies of credentialed people who are experts in process and ass-covering 6 timezones away....The funny thing is that the customer is then "shocked" when the project blows up.