$15B over budget
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IRS and operating systems...
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/doge-staffer-breaks-silence-irs-disaster-30-years/
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Or Biden's or Obama's or Bush's or Clintons... ask a fair question.
I believe what he says is true. been around enough gummint work to know contractors see it as a cash machine. I think this can be fixed.
On the other hand, running my own finances and a couple nonprofits, I can say their systems and most of customer service have very much improved over the last 20 years.
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Or Biden's or Obama's or Bush's or Clintons... ask a fair question.
I believe what he says is true. been around enough gummint work to know contractors see it as a cash machine. I think this can be fixed.
On the other hand, running my own finances and a couple nonprofits, I can say their systems and most of customer service have very much improved over the last 20 years.
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
I believe what he says is true. been around enough gummint work to know contractors see it as a cash machine. I think this can be fixed.
How would you fix their system?
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Corcos nailed it - you need to have someone who cares looking it over. You need to look at your processes, some of which may be dictated by law, much as GSA purchasing is. Those laws, meant to ensure fairness, add huge complexity and do very little for fairness.
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
The entity I work for now has 400 IT folks, and the operational scope and complexity is far greater. To have 8,000 is utterly ridiculous. You have to look through every contract and contrast it with what is being accomplished at what cost.
A friend of mine worked contract IT on the Air Force's travel system for a few years and the inertia and red tape was just too frustrating for him. I'm quite certain the IRS is the same way.
Revamp processes. Set sprint goals and hold the responsible parties accountable.
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Corcos nailed it - you need to have someone who cares looking it over. You need to look at your processes, some of which may be dictated by law, much as GSA purchasing is. Those laws, meant to ensure fairness, add huge complexity and do very little for fairness.
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
The entity I work for now has 400 IT folks, and the operational scope and complexity is far greater. To have 8,000 is utterly ridiculous. You have to look through every contract and contrast it with what is being accomplished at what cost.
A friend of mine worked contract IT on the Air Force's travel system for a few years and the inertia and red tape was just too frustrating for him. I'm quite certain the IRS is the same way.
Revamp processes. Set sprint goals and hold the responsible parties accountable.
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
I don't know computer programing, but I know all too well about minority preference scams.
A certain legislator in Louisiana knew where the proposed route of I-49 was surveyed, but he also knew when and where construction was due to start. He formed a consortium of business people, who bought land in several places where the interstate was going to be built. They made money doing that.
But where he probably made his most money, was by being a silent partner in a couple of "minority" owned fencing companies. One guy was black dude from in the city, who best knew a fence as a place where you could sell hot merchandise. The other minority company owner was a friend of mine who is American Indian.
At least in my friend's case, he did know how to build fence (what farm boy doesn't?) , but his fencing company was non-existent before the highway started being built. He was approached by the legislator, who told him he had a group of people who would front the money for the company if my friend would be the owner. All paperwork, bidding, purchasing and payroll was taken care of for him. All he had to do, was check on the crews at least twice a week to make sure the work was being done and to work with the general contractor.
What was hilarious was when both companies bid against each other in the general bids, with the same guy in the shadows working up the bids.
They made some money off of Uncle Sam...
“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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@Mik said in $15B over budget:
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
I don't know computer programing, but I know all too well about minority preference scams.
A certain legislator in Louisiana knew where the proposed route of I-49 was surveyed, but he also knew when and where construction was due to start. He formed a consortium of business people, who bought land in several places where the interstate was going to be built. They made money doing that.
But where he probably made his most money, was by being a silent partner in a couple of "minority" owned fencing companies. One guy was black dude from in the city, who best knew a fence as a place where you could sell hot merchandise. The other minority company owner was a friend of mine who is American Indian.
At least in my friend's case, he did know how to build fence (what farm boy doesn't?) , but his fencing company was non-existent before the highway started being built. He was approached by the legislator, who told him he had a group of people who would front the money for the company if my friend would be the owner. All paperwork, bidding, purchasing and payroll was taken care of for him. All he had to do, was check on the crews at least twice a week to make sure the work was being done and to work with the general contractor.
What was hilarious was when both companies bid against each other in the general bids, with the same guy in the shadows working up the bids.
They made some money off of Uncle Sam...
@Jolly said in $15B over budget:
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
I don't know computer programing, but I know all too well about minority preference scams.
I know a bit about programming. One thing that has proven consistent throughout my career is that more programmers does not equal more productivity nor better systems. In my experience it results in disjointed, poorly functioning systems. Two good programmers who understand the whole picture can get more done and done better than 20 who only know their small piece.
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@Jolly said in $15B over budget:
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
I don't know computer programing, but I know all too well about minority preference scams.
I know a bit about programming. One thing that has proven consistent throughout my career is that more programmers does not equal more productivity nor better systems. In my experience it results in disjointed, poorly functioning systems. Two good programmers who understand the whole picture can get more done and done better than 20 who only know their small piece.
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
@Jolly said in $15B over budget:
@Mik said in $15B over budget:
Get minority owned preferences out of the picture. Those too are meant to level the playing field but are often scams, a minority owner set up by a non-minority financial resource to garnish those contracts.
I don't know computer programing, but I know all too well about minority preference scams.
I know a bit about programming. One thing that has proven consistent throughout my career is that more programmers does not equal more productivity nor better systems. In my experience it results in disjointed, poorly functioning systems. Two good programmers who understand the whole picture can get more done and done better than 20 who only know their small piece.
Agreed. I was working on a very large IT project when I left it in 2020… when I left they asked any recommendations, I said remove half the team immediately, all it was doing was causing confusion. It was a project to move from a worldwide lotus notes ecosystem to a cloud/web based one.
What IRS needs to do is to have very clear requirements, spend a good year or two building the new system in its own environment, testing the crap out of it, embed built in unit tests for automated QC, then initiate a data migration plan to move needed data over, and archive the older stuff not needed. It’s really not rocket surgery, the problem is usually changeover in leadership and changing requirements. Never lets the replacement system get momentum.
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Testing the crap out of something is how I grew up. It seems to have fallen by the wayside. I’m running extracts from supposedly brilliant extract coders who don’t even check their own work. I can look at the data and tell it is wrong. We’ve gone through that four times now. It’s very annoying.
