Comptroller Accuses HP of Overcharging NYC $163m On 911 System 92
benfrog writes "New York City comptroller John Liu has accused HP of overcharging New York City $163 million on upgrades to its 911 system. According to a statement put out by Liu, an audit of the project revealed that HP did not perform up to spec on the contract between April 2005 and April 2008 and did not bill the city correctly for time and materials on its portion of the contract to upgrade the 911 system. According to Liu's reading, the contract was supposed to cost no more than $378 million over five years, but in January the city projected it would have already spent $307m by mid-April and had to award Northrop-Grumman an additional $286m to do a second part of the original contract, ballooning the cost to $632m, and Liu's office is now estimating that cost overruns beyond this could be as high as an additional $362m. NYC's deputy mayor for operations was quoted defending the contract."
Re:Do it in-house (Score:2, Informative)
Wouldn't it make more sense to hire employees to do this?
Not if they're eligible for pensions, can roll over their unused sick days and vacation time and cash them out on retirement, moonlight during working hours, and are protected from dismissal by a bevy of union-negotiated rules.