How is that for an acronym-rific title! Anyway, I encourage you to check out IPOPA’s (“Indy’s Painfully Objective Political Analysis”) post on the IBM (“International Business Machines”) and ACS (“Affiliated Computer Services”) contract with the state to provide welfare application and verification services previously performed by the FSSA (“Family and Social Service Administration”). The short version: the project is FUBAR (“Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition”).
Mainly, it seems that the project was too big, IBM/ACS couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver, there is little transparency, there was little competition, and the situation is rife with cronyism. Paul Ogden has a handy list of when privatizing government services might be the thing to do. The IBM/ACS FSSA deal is pretty much the antithesis of a good privatization prospect.
If Gov. Daniels has national ambitions in 2012, this ought to be an albatross around his neck.
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