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posted by martyb on Wednesday October 21 2015, @12:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the start-buying-old-boxes dept.

The Obama Administration has ordered US federal agencies to hold off on purchasing new PCs in hopes of patching up a broken ordering system.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has put a hold on new desktops and notebooks while it sorts through what it says are "thousands" of new system orders every year.

OMB said that because agencies lack a standardized way to order, maintain, and replace their IT infrastructure, officials are forced to seek out their own contracts and purchase orders to get new PCs, leading to huge accumulated costs in waste.

"There is no need for thousands of contracts to purchase common laptops and desktops," the OMB said in its order late last week.

What answer do you predict the US government will reach, "Surfaces for everyone!"?


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by snick on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:11PM

    by snick (1408) on Wednesday October 21 2015, @02:11PM (#252739)

    Anyone who has ever seen the procurement process for any large governmental^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H organisation (e.g. the UK NHS) knows what this means.
    You'll pay £10 for an AA battery so that you can get everything "from an approved supplier".
    And every "approved supplier" will play golf with the guy in charge of the system.

    FTFY
    People who think waste, inefficiency and graft are particular to governmental organizations are so cute. I have never worked for any government, but what you describe matches my experience with all large companies I have ever worked for.

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  • (Score: 2) by M. Baranczak on Wednesday October 21 2015, @03:02PM

    by M. Baranczak (1673) on Wednesday October 21 2015, @03:02PM (#252784)
    You think that's bad, imagine the procurement process at the Vatican. They have 2 millennia's worth of accumulated bureaucracy. Not like the old days, when St. Peter would just hand you a wad of bills and say "make sure you get a receipt".
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @04:39PM (#252828)

      Jesus always got the best weed.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Wednesday October 21 2015, @06:23PM

    by AnonymousCowardNoMore (5416) on Wednesday October 21 2015, @06:23PM (#252859)

    ^H to delete a letter. ^W to delete a whole word. Thought you might find it useful.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday October 21 2015, @08:17PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 21 2015, @08:17PM (#252900) Journal

    People who think waste, inefficiency and graft are particular to governmental organizations are so cute.

    Who would those people be? It just doesn't take many brain cells to notice that government organizations often take waste, inefficiency, and graft a few levels beyond what a private organization can afford.