Mike Bloomberg Gave $10 Million Contract to Firm Behind
Obamacare Website
by Frances Martel 26 Jan 2014,
2:29 PM PDT
One of the last things Michael Bloomberg did as Mayor of New
York on New Year's Eve was award a $10 million contract to the now-notorious
Canadian firm responsible for designing HealthCare.gov.
The firm was commissioned to
overhaul New York City's
311 non-emergency call operating system, according to the Daily News.
Newspapers and websites reported
extensively on Mayor Bloomberg's busy last week in office during which he
passed through such legislation as the banning of styrofoam food containers and
approved $12 billion in real estate projects. Among other plans Bloomberg
executed before handing over the city to progressive stalwart Bill de Blasio,
it is now revealed that Bloomberg commissioned the same firm that developed the
severely flawed HealthCare.gov website to redesign and update the city's 311
communications system, to the tune of $10 million this year.
The new system would be hosted,
according to sources, on a cloud-based system, keeping information secure and
available should more than one city computer system fail. The city's Department
of Information Technology and Telecommunications awarded the contract on New
Year's Eve. Should the firm, the Montreal-based CGI, need more time to continue
developing the system or face unexpected challenges, the $10 million price tag
could increase significantly.
Given CGI's record, the likelihood
that it will need more time to fully fix the system is great. The Daily News
notes that a source familiar with the firm does not know of any experience CGI
has with telephone systems like 311. The 311 system serves to notify residents
of city news involving non-emergencies, such as trash pickup, parking
regulations, and snow or ice removal.
The paper reports that the city's
Controller Scott Stringer, who is legally given the ability to object to a
contract within thirty days, is conducting a "review" of the contract
to see whether any other firms competing for the contract were clearly offering
a superior quality service. Emergency responders also told the Daily News they
were concerned about handing over such a contract to a firm with little
experience in such a system, as a failure in the 311 system could prompt those
seeking information on what days to dump their garbage outside to call 911
instead.
CGI has been awarded
contracts by New York City before, though it is
best known in the United
States as the architect behind HealthCare.gov. Its work with the Obamacare website has been described as
a "complete train wreck" by insiders and created a cascading effect
of inconveniences for millions of Americans who found the website unable to
accomplish basic tasks, paramount among them submitting an application. The New
York Times estimated that up to "five million lines of code" needed
fixing before the site could live up to the security and efficiency standards
required for such a massive endeavor.
CGI spokespeople have countered
that HealthCare.gov "worked as designed" and that they were unaware
of any problems before October 1st, the site's first launch date.
Michael Bloomberg
Michael R.
Bloomberg was the New York (NY) mayor, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, and a donor for
the Robin Hood Foundation.
Note: George Soros was a
benefactor for the Harlem Children's
Zone, and the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone, the Robin
Hood Foundation, and the Committee
for Economic Development.
Donna
S. Morea was a trustee at the Committee
for Economic Development, and the EVP for the CGI Group Inc.
CGI Group Inc.
was the Obamacare contractor that
developed Healthcare.gov web site.
Obamacare
is Barack Obama’s signature policy
initiative.
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