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GAO Denied Access To Webb Telescope Workers By Northrop Grumman
schwit1 writes In a report as well as at House hearings today the GAO reported that Northrop Grumman has denied them one-on-one access to workers building the James Webb Space Telescope. "The interviews, part of a running series of GAO audits of the NASA flagship observatory, which is billions of dollars overbudget and years behind schedule, were intended to identify potential future trouble spots, according to a GAO official. But Northrop Grumman Aerospace, which along with NASA says the $9 billion project is back on track, cited concerns that the employees, 30 in all, would be intimidated by the process." To give Northrop Grumman the benefit of the doubt, these interviews were a somewhat unusual request. Then again, if all was well why would they resist? Note too that the quote above says the cost of the telescope project is now $9 billion. If the project was "back on track" as the agency and Northrop Grumman claim, then why has the budget suddenly increased by another billion?
I can understand the reluctance to speak to Congress, or their henchmen.
Congressional republicans are a bunch of grabastick fucking retards who are far to busy intentionally sabotaging our country to do anything productive.
Sure you could pretend these fucktards are acting in good faith, but we all know they aren't, so why bother giving them more information to intentionally distort.
The only people stupider than congress are the absolutely fucking retarded voters who voted them in or didn't show up, often because they are too fucking stupid to understand the obvious differences between the 2 parties, and their track records.
You can get a whole month of war for that!
n/t
...who ground the Hubble mirror wrong because the primary measuring instrument said it was right, even though two independent test instruments said it was wrong...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I don't give a fuck if they're doing blow and fucking hookers, I want my god damn Hubble successor.
I can understand the reluctance to speak to Congress, or their henchmen.
I don't think you understand how federal programs work.
In order to bid on a government project, you have to comply with *a lot* of rules. If you don't want to, you don't have to big on the project. They're just such an awfully big buyer that a lot of people are willing to comply with the rules.
It's like any other moment in life when you're dealing with an annoying and overly demanding client. If you're very lucky you don't have to--but they do put the food on your table.
... With the spy chief lying to the Congress, with Northrop Grumman denying GAO's access to their workers, with Obama administration kowtowing to Qatar on the IS issues, ...
All these signs point to one thing --- the beginning of the end of the might of the United States of America
The government of the United States of America doesn't get the respect it used to get, the reputation of USA going down the drain, the piling up of debts (now fast approaching 18 Trillion) ... what kind of future USA gonna have?
if you're not doing anything wrong...fill in here...?
Whenever I hear these two words used together, it *ALWAYS* involves fraud.
Don't worry about cost overruns or inefficiencies, think of all of the valuable science that will come out of this telescope.
Each interview is man-hours not spent working on the project. GTFO GAO.
If the project was "back on track" as the agency and Northrop Grumman claim, then why has the budget suddenly increased by another billion?
Uh gee maybe because it was off track by about $1 billion worth of stuff they forgot to plan for? Ever work on a project before?
If the customer (the U.S. government) wants its auditors to be able to question individual employees, that should be clearly stipulated in the contract, and then the contractor should have no qualms about meeting the terms of that stipulation.
Lesson learned for how to draw up future contracts, I guess.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
No stick
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
You're right, there is nothing at all complicated about this situation, and intuition will answer all questions, no need for details. /sarcasm
Maybe there aren't any workers. Is the CEO sporting a shiny new $9 billion iWatch by any chance?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
"Intimidated by the process"? More like intimidated by Northrop Grumman's supervisors being in the room to make sure they don't say anything that might, hmm, jeopardize their future at Northrop Grumman...
They're siphoning money into a secrete e.l.e. asteroid killing rocket and are trying to keep it a secrete until it's on its way.
A previously one Here but now your O3n towel in All our times have dying. See? It's
To be fair, they don't say, which track it's back on. I believe they are referring to the gray train track.
: First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price? Only, this one can be kept secret....
They're too busy "defining the future" to get their current job done right or on time. But they do have one of the best marketing/lobbying team in the business.
> Then again, if all was well why would they resist?
Maybe their time is too valuable to waste it by talking to idiot auditor idiots. Believe it or not, there are people who do actual work instead of having a useless government busyjob.
Fuck auditors. I have yet to meet a single auditor *ever* who is qualified enough to be asking questions of the experts - the engineers - who are working on the project. Almost universally the auditors work from a pre-made playbook that looks for the same thing. They have neither the time nor the intelligence to actually understand why decisions were made the way they were made.
We recently had an quality audit at the manufacturing firm I work for. The auditor noted that several of our part-feeders had parts laying underneath, and broke into a full fledged 'teach moment' about how we could save money and lower scrap by correcting the feeding issues. I bit my tongue.
At the wrap-up meeting with directors present, the auditor pressed the point. I was quiet as long as I could, then I carefully explained that we had a $2,000,000 capacity problem that our engineers were working on, and politely asked my director if he'd like me to pull those engineers off that to work on saving a couple dozen parts a day that cost a fraction of a penny a piece.
Auditting rarely adds anything of value anywhere. If it were that easy to the correct the problems, the competent engineers would have already done it.
Wait, 30 people have cost $9 billion?
Do they eat gold? :)
Then again, if all was well why would they resist?
If you're innocent, why would you resist talking to investigators all by yourself?
Really?
Yes, I realize that this isn't a criminal investigation, but honestly. If I knew there were a chance that any offhand remark or misstatement I made could end up being quoted on C-SPAN by a Senator with an axe to grind...yeah, I'd be pretty damned reluctant to talk. Even if I weren't bright enough to figure that out for myself, I'm pretty sure I can see why my employer would have similar concerns.
~Idarubicin
Uhmm...unless you are Dr Evil ransoming the word for $1 MILLYON DOLLARSS, $9 billion is chump change.
Any time you are approached by any State actor, you have the absolute right not to talk to them about anything. Northrop Grumman is doing the right thing in protecting their employees' from unlawful interrogation by State actors.
As this is government (i.e. taxpayer) money, you stop paying Nothrop Grumman until they grant access to the employees.
Since, as people like to say, the government doesn't create jobs, cutting off funding won't have any effect so there can't be any complaints. In fact, stopping payments on a project which is this far over budget would be good PR: a private company unable to do what they've been paid to do so the government is cutting them off.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Sorry but the OP states it's over budget and overdue. Well if you look at the original budget & deadline yes this is correct, however, subsequently the scope of the project has been massively increased which consequently increased the budget and time scale. Its not due to fly until 2018 and has still cost less than the Hubble.
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
> If the project was "back on track" as the agency and Northrop Grumman claim,
> then why has the budget suddenly increased by another billion?
The project is back on track to be able to stick around for another fiscal year in order to ask for another budget increase.
See? How difficult was that? Simple actually.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
"Then again, if all was well why would they resist?"
Yeah, because after all, only guilty people have stuff to hide! Honest people should have no problems having their email read, phones tapped, ... um...
Who fuck is working for working for who here?
Get up!
"You say anything to the GAO people we don't like, we'll find out, and you'll never work again".
And I was a contractor for a company that was sold to them... and they proceeded to get rid of those of us who knew the project best, on a variety of excuses.
I read, a few years ago, that the client manager was in legal, or was it criminal, trouble.... (and he was a city government employee).
Do you *really* think NG is all wonderful, and doing everything right (and that it's all the federal gov't fault that the telescope is years late and billions overbudget? If you do, then you've obviously never actually worked for a living....
mark "I recommend Dilbert"