In one of its final acts, the Bloomberg administration pushed through a costly contract to modernize the city's 311 call system — hiring the same company fired by the feds for the botched rollout of the Obamacare website.
The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, known as DoITT, awarded the contract to the Montreal-based company CGI on Dec. 31, hours before Bill de Blasio was sworn in as mayor.
Bloomberg administration officials were keen on approving the deal because the former mayor sees the 311 hotline as one his legacies, sources said.
But rival companies are up in arms, saying CGI has little if any experience managing call centers. A website, Dont911nyc311.com, has popped up to protest the contract.
CGI has never overhauled “a 311-type system,” said a source in the information technology industry.
“We’re transferring a service New York City provided to its people to a service New York City is contracting to outside parties to do. It’s a serious situation.”
The contract will cost taxpayers $10 million this year — and potentially tens of millions more in future years.
This is the same kind of Bloomberg behavior that brought us the 911 system overhaul - the one that cost over $2 billion dollars, is years behind schedule and still doesn't work right.
Same as the CityTime boondoggle as well.
How the press never went after Bloomberg on the 911 system, the CityTime mess and the other contract boondoggles is beyond me.
You can bet they'll go after de Blasio if he does the same.
But Bloomberg essentially gets a pass - no meme about what an incompetent steward of city contracts he was.
The eternal question will always be...did Bloomberg take kickbacks on any of his City Hall business? All of the massive,school,construction contracts, 911 scam, City Time scam, bike stands, all of the Ed. consulting and tech work, etc., etc?
ReplyDeleteHe was worth $5 billion when he was elected in 2001. He's worth $30 billion+ 12 years later. He made this money during a time of two recessions, one of which was the worst economic downturn since the Depression. Dunno if he took kickbacks, but I do know my bullshit meter goes off when you see that kind of wealth accumulation during a time of economic downswings for most other people.
DeleteBags of cash delivered to some location in NYC can never be traced...we will never know. Or a mouse click or two, to offshore, shell , corporate accounts...easy to hide or lose amongst millions of dollars...? Somehow, I think he couldn't resist the temptation, since this is how the wealthy Manhattanite businessmen have been doing business there forever. Vendors always pay to play in The Big Apple.
ReplyDeleteIf there was contract and consultant funkiness during the Bloomberg Years, it was more likely companies bought Bloomberg LP terminals and the like in order to be considered for contracts. I'm not ready to say that;s how things went down - but certainly that is where a big chunk of Bloomberg's wealth accumulation over the last 12 years came from.
DeleteVendors,don't just walk in, no matter how superior their product, and get contracts in Manhattan. There's always some type of "sweetener" going to someone to grease the skids. Since Bloomturd is "Mr. CEO" , he suddenly changes his businessman stripes because he's Mayor for 12 years...?
ReplyDeleteI agree - a close look at just which contractors bought Bloomberg LP services or terminals might be the place to look...
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