Excerpt from a lengthy story that includes pointed references to software problems:

Bad decisions, poor oversight of public funds waste millions of dollars in a series of ... COSTLY MISTAKES

Sunday, February 6, 2000 By ROB HOFFMAN and PAUL RIOUX NEWS STAFF REPORTERS

A recent rash of governmental mistakes that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars raises questions about the decision-making, fiscal management and accountability of public entities throughout Washtenaw County. The mistakes resulted in wasted tax dollars, budget cuts, higher fees and delayed improvements to public services.

A recently discovered accounting error left the Ann Arbor District Library with a $950,000 deficit; problems with Ann Arbor's utility-billing software have caused a $2.8 million revenue shortfall; and Washtenaw Community College swallowed a $2 million loss when it scrapped a new software package that wasn't working.

The city picked the new Aquilium billing-software program without going through a formal bidding process and did not test it side-by-side with the old software.

The community college signed a contract with PeopleSoft in September 1997 with no cap on expenses or deadline for installing the software program. Costs skyrocketed and the college scrapped the program in October 1998 to cut its losses. Installation of PeopleSoft software at the University of Michigan has also caused extensive problems and cost overruns, though the university continues to use the software

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Link:

http://aa.mlive.com/news/index.ssf?/news/stories/20000205amistakes.frm

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 06, 2000

Answers

The community college signed a contract with PeopleSoft in September 1997 with no cap on expenses or deadline for installing the software program.

Here's the irony about this situation. Whoever had the authority to consummate the contract is not fired and yet they did a nationwide search (at a cost of thousands) to find the best candidate for the job.

This is what you get for paying your fair share (of taxes). This same scenario has been repeated all over the country.

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), February 06, 2000.