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Corps asked to explain pump contract »
Posted by: JamesMarcus 2 years, 7 months agoWhen the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications--typos and all--from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract. The pumps subsequently proved to be defective.
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JamesMarcus
James Marcus is a writer, translator, critic, and editor. He is the author of Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut and ...
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Comments: 125
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populist
April 30, 2007, 6:22 p.m.The government seems to be quite good at this - failure, and wasting millions upon millions of dollars.
I can hardly think of a government plan or program that came out how the politicians promise us.
They always have these grand "ideas" for sucess, stablization, improvement, peace, democracy, etc....the inevitable results being failure, loss of money, and increased profits and power for themselves and their corporate friends.
I just don't trust these people to ever do what they promise...
But, without rambling too too much, a good read on this is:
"Beware of Politicians with Good Intentions"
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kctrixter
April 30, 2007, 6:38 p.m.I'm sure WMI just got lucky with this bid.
BTW I'm looking to hire a new employee. applicant must be 4'7", have gray hair, blond beard, black eyebrows, have 20/30 vision in his left eye 20/70 in his right, have a dog named Fred, a wife named Pete (nick name for Petra) and wear size 12 wingtips. Will consider all qualified applicants.
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Petom1
April 30, 2007, 6:42 p.m.This is how virtually all government requirements are written- Find a product, service or even promotion candidate you want, then write the requirement to fit.
And look how well it works!
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RedstateLib
April 30, 2007, 7:19 p.m.There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
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RedstateLib
April 30, 2007, 7:23 p.m.There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
There is no corruption in government except for Democrats! Bill did it to! Just wait till Hillary is President!
OK now NoSpin, KOL, LibsSuck, and the rest of them don't need to post on here. I have posted exactly what they would say and repeated it over and over for them.
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teepeebiking
April 30, 2007, 8:20 p.m.I was preparing to ask, somewhat sarcastically, what connection this fortunate company had with the bush administration after I read the preview of this story, but then I read the whole story and realized that sarcasm wasn't necessary, as someone went ahead and found the connection without having to dig too deep.
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spikecwc
April 30, 2007, 8:22 p.m.It's the ARMY. Of course they aren't very well versed in grammar and spelling.
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Lincoln85
May 1, 2007, 12:07 a.m.I got up out of bed today...and had a cold.... It is Bush's fault. If he would have agreed to better pollution policies...I would not be ill. On a more serious note...Lincoln..a Republican freed the slaves...the civil rights of minorities were only passed by a repbublican congress with opposition from the democrats. The NAACP was started by republicans. I do not see how someone who is intellecutally honest would continue to try put blame to Bush for these issues. I know race is a hotbed of controversy...but get over it....If you would have been president during Katrina...do you think you could have done a better job?...look at the pics of the school busses sitting on parking lots because the mayor did not feel the threat was big enough to deploy the school busses. If you like separation and more power to the state like most rationale people...it is the mayor and governor of that state's fault.
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vdp42
May 1, 2007, 12:32 a.m.I used to think that anybody with a brain got the concept that the less governmental meddling in a private citizen's life was a good thing.
Then I ran into a bunch if people that rely on the government to provide everything in their life.
I still think my original idea was correct.
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chevydog
May 1, 2007, 9:01 a.m.Sometimes in the design stage of a project, an engineer can become satisfied that only one label/brand/piece of eqipment is capable of doing the service desired. So the spec is in essence written for that specific piece. Possible reasons -- people on the design team accept engineer's judgement, desire to standardize (includes spare parts, maintenance training, supplier service, etc.), even "corruption" (esp. if not all people agree or judgement is based on schmoozing or other non-objective criteria).
Being designated a standard is often the fondest dream of an equipment supplier and not all that uncommon in industry. Sometimes equipment manufacturers even provide the "suitable" wording for an order or spec. Standards are fine as long as equipment is (even arguably) the best or only suitable. But if the quality or service doesn't meet expectations, somebody pushing a standard can look awfully stupid.
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Tcaros
May 1, 2007, 9:03 a.m.More Bush & CO. - this is the Nut World Order. They come to rob, steal, and cause suffering.
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justron
May 1, 2007, 9:42 a.m.I must admit, this is real funny, rolling on the dictonary.
The simple way to resolve the problem, do not let people live in a hole.
If you keep falling in to your well , would you expect the goverment to put in a road out of your well. Then expect them to pump it out to prevent water from comming in to your well.
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jumpmaster
May 1, 2007, 10:18 a.m.I have been suffering through government specifications for about 20 years. Navy, Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps.
It is civillians who design the projects and write the specifications and on the best day, the specs were pathetic. The spec writers go overboard to NOT specify a particular brand and therefore write a spec that no manufacturer can meet.
It is not uncommon to have a conflict between the specs and the plans. The result is usually a product that cannot be built in our universe. You send in a request for clarification and four weeks later, you get a response to build per plans and specs. Very, very, lame.
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joeblowe
May 1, 2007, 10:53 a.m.Well, although this is yet another indicator of corruption in our government (which I do NOT think we should tolerate) there is a thing here that is worth mentioning: SOMEONE CAUGHT THIS! And, now it has been put into the public view. PERHAPS, just perhaps, someone will be held accountable. I fervently hope that we have some prosecutors, somewhere, who aren't afraid to prosecute a case like this.
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jumpmaster
May 1, 2007, 11:06 a.m.Everyone thinks this is some kind of top-down conspiracy kind of thing. Here is a scenario of what more likely happened.
Some low level government employee is tasked with writing a pump specification. This person does not have any knowledge or expertise with pumps. So he calls his local pump manufacturers for help. All but one turn him down because they are tired of doing all this design work and specification development, while their competitors are busy with more profitable ventures and then to have the whole thing put out to bid. (been there)
The government employee still has to complete the spec so he takes the information from the only manufacturer who gave him the time of day and he cuts and pastes it into the RFP. He does not know enough about pumps to even know what to look for in a proofread.
The RFP is published and the low bid gets the order. The other mfgs are probably high because they had to chase someone else's spec.
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Mango36
May 1, 2007, 12:03 p.m.And now we want to trust the Government with our medical insurance? I hope not.
Big government = Big waste and less efficiency.
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jumpmaster
May 1, 2007, 12:06 p.m.Large organizations can be inefficient. I worked for a Fortune 2 company and yes, it can be difficult to get things done.
However, the biggest difference pertaining to the government is that they never, ever, have an incentive to get anything done. It is always "no sudden movements" and "no loud noises" for them.
When I worked for the large company, there was always someone, somewhere, who had a very deep interest in getting something accomplished. Somewhere, there was somebody whose performance was measured and tied to getting something done.
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lovelytxwoman
May 1, 2007, 1:10 p.m.Get over blaming the government for rising gasoline prices! It is the stock market and supply and demand and let's not forget fear that causes this price jumping! Did you not take or learn basic economics in your lifetime! Anyway,gas prices did not change to that amount in Houston! But wait we produce gasoline for everyone else,that is as it should be cheaper for our area!
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aceofspades1
May 1, 2007, 2:28 p.m.I have to seriously look into getting help - everyone here is obsessed with BS - either political, grammatical, lifestyle or whatever, But completely engulfed with BS - & I'm actually responding & posting here - where did I go wrong? quaaaaaack
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