WWTBAM Bored

Just when I think that there is nothing that can surprise me in my bureaucratic world something comes along and surprises me. This time it's the process for purchasing new computers. As I've mentioned we are under a new "regime" known as ACE-IT, a government/private sector partnership that is supposed to be the "most efficient organization" for providing IT support. Well, they do more than just that - they are also responsible for purchasing new equipment. Since we are hiring new employees, we asked about the procedure for purchasing new equipment (in the old days, we'd just go out and buy them). Now we have to submit a request accompanied by a justification, then prepare a funding document, open an "incident ticket" with ACE-IT, then wait while other offices get involved in the process.

OK, so we started this process in July (the earliest e-mail message I have is dated July 21). It's now August 20 and we're being told that we can't get any new computers because of a "configuration lockdown". It turns out that although our office did everything it was supposed to do, some other office didn't do what it was supposed to do, so the order didn't get forwarded to the appropriate individual(s) in time to meet a cutoff date that we didn't even know existed. So it looks as if our new employees will have to sit on their hands until after October 1.

Faugh, faugh!! I say regarding this "most efficient organization."

earendel wrote:Faugh, faugh!! I say regarding this "most efficient organization."

Help yourself to some <grumbles>®.

There is never, ever, anything efficient about government. The system may be changed and improved from whatever current standards are in place, according to the whims of Congresscritters or local PTB, but it will never become "efficient".

gsabc wrote:There is never, ever, anything efficient about government. The system may be changed and improved from whatever current standards are in place, according to the whims of Congresscritters or local PTB, but it will never become "efficient".

For "efficient" read "cheap" and you'll get the idea. There's no way that this is a more efficient way to provide IT services. Another case in point - I spent thirty minutes yesterday trying to explain a problem to a help desk technician, and even after I finished I wasn't sure he understood the problem. In the old days I'd have called our network help desk, received a call number, then called the network people directly.

Unfortunately such things aren't factored into the equation when calculating costs - all that was looked at was salaries and benefits for government employees vs. private sector employees, with a few other trade-offs in the mix. The time that I have to spend explaining a problem to someone who doesn't speak the language (not English - a specific "dialect of computerese") isn't figured in, nor the additional time spent in waiting for a resolution.

So, since Marley offered them, I'm taking them.

<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®
<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®
<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®
<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®<grumble>®