Waste, Fraud & Mismanagement:
Your Tax Dollars at Work

Software Fiasco Costs Taxpayers $10 Million for Nothing. Daniel Weintraub, a respected political columnist for The Sacramento Bee, reports: “After wasting seven years and $10 million, the state government has quietly abandoned plans to automate the way it grants permits to truckers carrying oversized loads on California roads and highways.” The automation attempt came after errors by government workers led to 31 wrecks in four years, as trucks with oversized loads were directed to take routes that led them into bridges, overpasses and other obstacles that didn’t provide enough clearance or weight support.

With the general public’s use of Internet mapping now commonplace, the Department of Transportation figured that it, too, could use computers to direct truckers on safe routes, with less chance of human error, and with a quicker turnaround time for truckers who applied for permits. In 1999, Caltrans hired Bentley Systems of Pennsylvania to handle the automation, with completion set for 2002.

In December, the state canceled the contract and gave the company a $1.7 million settlement to conclude the deal. The firm collected $2.6 million since 2002, while state employees, computer equipment, and an independent consultant (hired to monitor the progress of the project) contributed to the overall cost of $10 million.

Mr. Weintraub writes: “The Caltrans debacle thus became the latest in a long and puzzling line of computer contract failures in California government. Although the state is home to the Silicon Valley, the center of innovation in the software industry, its government has repeatedly spent millions of dollars on projects that were ill-designed or mismanaged or simply collapsed under the weight of their own complexity.” (Source: The Sacramento Bee, March 2.)

Cal-Taxletter March 7, 2008

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