$1 billion to digitize a single form? Sounds reasonable.

[One Bad Pig]

linky

Source: WaPo

Heaving under mountains of paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms.

A decade in, all that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that’s now available for online applications and a single type of fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper.

This project, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was originally supposed to cost a half-billion dollars and be finished in 2013. Instead, it’s now projected to reach up to $3.1 billion and be done nearly four years from now, putting in jeopardy efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, handle immigrants already seeking citizenship and detect national security threats, according to documents and interviews with former and current federal officials.

From the start, the initiative was mismanaged, the records and interviews show. Agency officials did not complete the basic plans for the computer system until nearly three years after the initial $500 million contract had been awarded to IBM, and the approach to adopting the technology was outdated before work on it began.

© Copyright Original Source

For the sarcastically impaired the following is said in jest

Good to know that my tax dollars aren't going to waste.

And people want the federal government to do more?

[Sparko]

I think that was the project I was in charge of. I got a lot of bacon out of that deal. For another $2 Billion I will do another form.

[rogue06]

I think that was the project I was in charge of. I got a lot of bacon out of that deal. For another $2 Billion I will do another form.

rogue tech will digitize two forms for a mere half a billion dollars -- even Canuckistani dollars.

[Sparko]

rogue tech will digitize two forms for a mere half a billion dollars -- even Canuckistani dollars.

sure. and for another $2 billion you will translate the form from squirrel scratch to English, right?

[rogue06]

sure. and for another $2 billion you will translate the form from squirrel scratch to English, right?

None of the NSA ever do such work. They are waaaaay too busy training, conducting missions and celebrating afterwards. And if you were involved all they woulda got was something like

Arrrrrr arr arrrrrrr. Arrr, arrrrrrr arrrrr arr. Arrrrrrr arrrr arrrrrr, arrrrrrrrrrr arrr bacon?

I actually have experts for this.

MarketingDog.jpg

[Cow Poke]

linky

Source: WaPo

Heaving under mountains of paperwork, the government has spent more than $1 billion trying to replace its antiquated approach to managing immigration with a system of digitized records, online applications and a full suite of nearly 100 electronic forms.

A decade in, all that officials have to show for the effort is a single form that’s now available for online applications and a single type of fee that immigrants pay electronically. The 94 other forms can be filed only with paper.

This project, run by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, was originally supposed to cost a half-billion dollars and be finished in 2013. Instead, it’s now projected to reach up to $3.1 billion and be done nearly four years from now, putting in jeopardy efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration policies, handle immigrants already seeking citizenship and detect national security threats, according to documents and interviews with former and current federal officials.

From the start, the initiative was mismanaged, the records and interviews show. Agency officials did not complete the basic plans for the computer system until nearly three years after the initial $500 million contract had been awarded to IBM, and the approach to adopting the technology was outdated before work on it began.

© Copyright Original Source

For the sarcastically impaired the following is said in jest

Good to know that my tax dollars aren't going to waste.

And people want the federal government to do more?

I created, using Nuance PDF Creator, a form to "onboard" new employees, using one online form that populates all the other forms, including a fillable blue cross blue shield form that BCBS did not already have, enrolling them in our 401k, and all other documents necessary for hire, like the W9, W4, etc, and, because I was an employee of the company, it was FREE!!!!!

[Catholicity]

And just how hard is it to create and store a digital record??????

[Sparko]

And just how hard is it to create and store a digital record??????

It's not just the form, it is the infrastructure behind it: the database and so on.

[Zymologist]

As Macklemore would say, "That's a heck of a deal!" (paraphrased)