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| Home Front: Politix |
| Obama team spending $18 million to redesign Recovery.gov already |
| 2009-07-16 |
| Recovery.gov is the Obama administration's website for tracking government stimulus spending. Will there soon be a tracking explanation of the $18 million that the administration has recently dedicated to redesigning and maintaining the newly-launched site for the next four and a half years? That's $4 million a year. I'da done it for them for about a tenth of that and hired a couple slaves at good wages to do the actual typing. The Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. won a bid for $9.5 million to redesign the already-functional Recovery.gov by January and up to $18 million through 2014, according to a press release from the General Services Administration. Smartronix isn't giving interviews right now about the deal, but the company released a statement saying it will offer "24x7 operation and maintenance" in addition to the initial creation and installation of the new version. Whoopdy doo. 24-7, is it? Kinda like Rantburg, only without fresh content daily. And without the commentary. But with press releases. To complement the beefy computer servers that the company will need to run the site and support millions of users, Smartronix will keep a mirror version of Recovery.gov in case things go wrong. I've got a mirror of the Burg in my basement, though I'll admit I don't keep it backed up often enough. Tack an extra hundred thou on what I make on it, though, and I would. Guaranteed. At first glance, the White House got ripped off. Picked right up on that, didn't they? Twitter Inc., the fastest-growing social network, didn't even raise that much money in its third venture funding round last year. Oh, well. What's Twitter? Some fly-by-nite, right? Some website designers had similar first impressions when asked about the contract. "That's insane," said Brad Crowell, a Los Angeles-based Web designer who worked on a now-defunct media-rich social network. "I would never have to work again in my life... It doesn't even take a million dollars a year to keep a site up." I ask for donations every three or four months. I make hosting, plus a little left over for the hardware fund which is usually eaten up by household emergencies. Chetan Damani, director of Imano, a Web development company with 40 employees and offices in New York, London and Mumbai, initially agreed. "That's a pretty sweet deal," Damani said on the phone from London. I'd say so. With that kinda money I could do nothing but the Burg, as could each of the mods, plus we could all smoke expensive cigars except for Doc Steve who could chew expensive gum. But putting it in perspective, Damani conceded that very few design firms can follow through on the hyper security and quick turnaround that Smartronix is promising. "They're following some pretty strict standards," Damani said of Smartronix. "It's more than just a design." Right. I'd put a few bucks extra in Badanov's pay check, but not $4 million a year. Between the two of us, we've kept the Burg puttering along. The site hasn't been knocked down in a long time. That's prob'ly because we've got at least half of China and Korea in the ban bucket. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #9 Your are simply entering dementia. A comedy of sight and sound performed by an illustrious cast of cabbage patch players. A veritable cornucopia of political delights to vex and break wind upon all of humankind. Now; without delay, let the farce continue. |
| Posted by: Dale 2009-07-16 22:02 |
| #8 1. Better Websites 2. ????? 3. Socialism for America! You are SOO screwed. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-07-16 20:31 |
| #7 Problem: Americans don't want Socialism. Answer: Better websites! It's foolproof. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-07-16 16:40 |
| #6 And these are the jokers that want to run the healthcare system for us? I know I keep saying it but WE ARE SO PHUCKED. This just gets more depressing every day. I think I need to take a break from the news. |
| Posted by: eltoroverde 2009-07-16 13:56 |
| #5 At my age I'd not only chew that gum, I'd patent it ... |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-07-16 13:53 |
| #4 Opensecrets says Smartronix honchos have donated $19,000 to Steny Hoyer (D-MD) since 1999. $3000 last year. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-07-16 12:12 |
| #3 $18 mil will get you about 20 well-designed and robust websites in the open market. Your tax dollars at work. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-07-16 11:59 |
| #2 Within days, several media outlets, including Fox News and the Washington Examiner, criticized the size of the contract and alleged that campaign contributions made to House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer from Smartronix executives played a role in the company being selected to design the Recovery.gov 2.0 site. A spokeswoman for Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) said he was not involved in the contract and had no knowledge that it was awarded to a business in his district until the media reports surfaced. "Congressman Hoyer had no involvement in the award of this contract. Any suggestion otherwise is disingenuous and not based on fact," said Stephanie Lundberg, Hoyer's press secretary. "Federal contracts are awarded independently, not by members of Congress." Calls placed to Smartronix were not returned by press time, but the company did post a statement on its Web site that makes no reference to the allegations of pay-to-play contracting. "Smartronix is honored to have been selected to redesign the Recovery.gov 2.0 Web site," said CEO John Parris in a press release. "We have assembled the best team to meet the contract's complex requirements and have immediately begun work to meet the Recovery.gov 2.0's aggressive schedule. We look forward to working with the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and our partners to develop a solution that will allow the American taxpayer to see how the money from the American Recovery and Investment Act of 2009 is being distributed and managed." Those who have questioned the high cost to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site are misguided, RAT Board Chairman Earl Devaney told Congress Daily last week. Critics have oversimplified the task of revamping "the government's largest Web site" in such a short time, as well as the difficulty of building security controls and interconnectivity with a reporting system designed to handle a huge amount of information, he said. Still, anti-tax groups are up in arms about the price tag and the lack of information known about the contract."Tech-savvy experts tell us that there really are no Web sites out there that would merit this kind of cost — including sites for major retailers or banking Web sites," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, in a statement. "So unfortunately, it looks like taxpayers are once again being taken for a ride — with blindfolds for that matter." Accountability watchdog groups said it is premature to assail the cost before seeing the final product."That may be a bargain depending on the basis of the work that we're asking them to do," said Scott H. Amey, general counsel for Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit organization that monitors waste, fraud and abuse throughout the federal government. "The amount of money sounds high for a database, but I'm not an IT expert, so I can't say how much a database [like this] costs," he said. A glance at details of how the contract was advertised and awarded did not raise any red flags, he said. The contract was competitively contested — two other companies submitted bids — and it includes a "full-solution package" for operations and maintenance, which is good. One factor that likely contributes to the price tag is that the quick timeline to redevelop the Web site commands a premium, said Craig T. Jennings, a senior policy analyst for OMB Watch, a nonprofit group that aims to increase federal accountability and transparency. "There's been a rush to criticism that I think is really unwarranted," he said. "At an initial glance, $18 million is a lot, but … it could be that this Web site is going to be really awesome and that it's going to deliver the transparency that the administration is aiming for." And it is unlikely that Hoyer, despite his high profile within Congress, curries influence within the GSA and the federal procurement process, Jennings said. The Examiner reported that Smartronix executives contributed $19,000 to Hoyer since 1999. Although there is no hard evidence of any wrongdoing, Common Cause Maryland Executive Director Ryan O'Donnell said it is another example where the role of money in politics raises ethical questions. "You can't prove it one way or the other," he said. "You seldom can, which is why taking money out of politics is so important to begin with because if you do create that separation, you never have any question." Expending up to $18 million to make stimulus spending more transparent is a worthy outlay, O'Donnell added. "That's a drop in the bucket compared to the [size] of this stimulus package," he said of the $787 billion plan signed in February. "There needs to be a way for the public to oversee it and a Web site is making information public and helping to create accountability itself. I think it's definitely fair play to criticize any part of the stimulus package, but in order to do that, transparency is essential." http://www.somdnews.com/stories/07152009/indytop173516_32194.shtml |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-07-16 11:43 |
| #1 Doc Steve who could chew expensive gum. Get him some of that Juice gum they're sabotaging the Paleos with. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-07-16 11:39 |