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In Atlanta, an electrical problem in a "Buss Duct" has caused the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center to be closed for at least a week. 5,000 federal employees work at the center.
While many might view this as another example of The Infrastructure Crisis in the USA, it may also be another example of mismanagement at the General Service Administration (GSA), landlord for the complex.
The GSA has had many scandals and has been the subject of several Congressional Hearings, including an August 1, 2012 hearing titled "GSA: A Review of Agency Mismanagement and Wasteful Spending - Part 2". That hearing followed an $823,000 GSA employee conference in Las Vegas and a one-day-long $250,000 GSA employee conference in Crystal City, Virginia.
The closed Atlanta complex is named for Samuel Augustus "Sam" Nunn, Jr., who served for 24 years as a United States Senator from Georgia and whose daughter is the current Democratic Party nominee for a Georgia Senate seat.
(Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Tuesday July 29 2014, @12:56PM
I understand your point about the mind-boggling numbers in the Federal government, however the Las Vegas convention scandal was not about the fact that they held a convention, but that the contracts for the hotel, food, and entertainment were not properly bid, and were in clear violation of Federal rules for events of this nature. The cost for their annual convention had quadrupled in a span of a few years, and by all accounts, excessive for what needed to be accomplished. So while the overall percentage spent may not be that high, it is still important that this kind of behavior is dealt with so that others don't think that this the way that the business of the government should be conducted.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:12PM
Don't get me wrong: When somebody screws up big time or is getting corrupt in government, I firmly agree that people should be disciplined, demoted, and fired if needed. And indeed that happened in this case.
My point is that just because you've proven 10 people in an agency are corrupt doesn't say anything at all about the other ~65,000 people who work for it, and that when you look at the overall track record it is quite good. And if you want to see a track record that's not good, compare any US federal agency you like with an equivalent agency in, say, Greece or Italy.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 29 2014, @01:40PM
Let me put this into different terms. Lets say I make boxes. I sell 100million boxes the size of a car. (yeah me!). I sell them for 500 dollars. It costs me 50 bucks to deal with 1 return. Now I have a 1% return rate. Thats not bad at all. Lets even say it is 4% bellow industry average. I still have LARGE problem. What do I do with 1 million boxes and the 50 million dollar writedown in profits? Dont think so? MS did this with the 360. They had a 30% fail rate. They had warehouses full of the things.
You are playing with numbers and you know it. Doing the way you are doing it lets others get away with other things. Because its 'not as bad'. Do you really want a gov that is 'not as bad as'?
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 29 2014, @04:14PM
Yes, it's a problem. Yes, you should address it. But it's also true that your company is doing pretty well, with $50,000 million coming in the door with which to pay the $50 million in returns and plenty left over to pay for dealing with the returned boxes, so concluding that your company sucks at its job would be very incorrect.
I of course strive for perfection in government, as in everything else. I also know that we're all human, screw-ups happen, and that really really good is what is nearly always achievable in a human system. For example, the closest thing the world has to a perfect software shop [fastcompany.com] still has only 99.99% bug-free code.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.