Gov't Spends $833 Million on 53 miles of Fence

[AZGrizFan]

.....$833 million that was supposed to build 655 MILES of fence.

And this is who the donks want running our healthcare program?

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... -cost.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Taxpayers have shelled out at least $15.1 million per mile for 53 miles of "virtual fence" built to secure the U.S.-Mexico border, more than 12 times the original estimate.

The federal government set aside $833 million for the fence of cameras, sensors and other barriers in 2007, and the vast majority of that money, at least $800 million, has been spent on a sliver, in Arizona, of the nearly 2,000-mile southern border. About $20.9 million has been used on the northern border.

Our government is a fucking joke. Period.

[AZGrizFan]

Based on these figures, I've been WAY off when I keep accusing the government of delivering half the promise for twice the cost....

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

That's pretty fucking sickening dude.

[93henfan]

Another botched GW Bush initiative.

At face value, this sounds terrible, but the article is short on specifics. I'd like to know exactly where the money went and why. How much was incompetence by the contracting shop and how much was a cash grab by contractor friends of whatever congressmen pushed the project through?

I can speculate about some roots of the problem. First off, when I see that this was Homeland Security, that gives it a lot of baggage right off the bat. Homeland Security is so green in everything they do, particularly procurement, that it's absolutely frightening. They literally scrounged that agency's procurement directorate together with whomever they could pluck off the streets. Every decent person they have was put on Katrina, and most of them have already washed out from the lack of experience and frustration. DHS is a broken agency, plain and simple. I won't make excuses for their contracting officers, but those poor people do not have the tools in place to do their job properly. I do not envy the situation they were put in, or the repercussions of what will come after Waxman trashes them on this.

Btw, I've read a lot of horror stories about unemployment on this site lately. If you really, really need to eat, put in an application with DHS. No experience necessary. They'll hire anyone. They are desperate. I just took a look on USAJobs website. For comparison, DHS has openings for 27 contracting officers today. My agency has one. Them bastages are in trouble.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

That's pretty fucking sickening dude.

It doesnt matter its not their money.....................................

[89Hen]

I keep reading the title of this thread as:

Gov't Spends $833 Million on 53 miles of Feces

Which is actually not far off base.

[Ivytalk]

Another botched GW Bush initiative.

At face value, this sounds terrible, but the article is short on specifics. I'd like to know exactly where the money went and why. How much was incompetence by the contracting shop and how much was a cash grab by contractor friends of whatever congressmen pushed the project through?

I can speculate about some roots of the problem. First off, when I see that this was Homeland Security, that gives it a lot of baggage right off the bat. Homeland Security is so green in everything they do, particularly procurement, that it's absolutely frightening. They literally scrounged that agency's procurement directorate together with whomever they could pluck off the streets. Every decent person they have was put on Katrina, and most of them have already washed out from the lack of experience and frustration. DHS is a broken agency, plain and simple. I won't make excuses for their contracting officers, but those poor people do not have the tools in place to do their job properly. I do not envy the situation they were put in, or the repercussions of what will come after Waxman trashes them on this.

Btw, I've read a lot of horror stories about unemployment on this site lately. If you really, really need to eat, put in an application with DHS. No experience necessary. They'll hire anyone. They are desperate. I just took a look on USAJobs website. For comparison, DHS has openings for 27 contracting officers today. My agency has one. Them bastages are in trouble.

I nominate 93henfan to become Fence Czar and straighten it all out!

[AZGrizFan]

Another botched GW Bush initiative.

At face value, this sounds terrible, but the article is short on specifics. I'd like to know exactly where the money went and why. How much was incompetence by the contracting shop and how much was a cash grab by contractor friends of whatever congressmen pushed the project through?

Roger Krone, an executive with virtual fence contractor Boeing, disagreed with portrayals of the spending. He said only $155 million was spent for the deployment of technology to monitor 55 miles of the Arizona border, a rate of $2.8 million a mile.

Krone said of the $828 million spent on the fence, $484 million was for nonrecurring costs, on design, development, supplier and program management and software design and development.

Man, I am in the wrong business.

[93henfan]

Another botched GW Bush initiative.

At face value, this sounds terrible, but the article is short on specifics. I'd like to know exactly where the money went and why. How much was incompetence by the contracting shop and how much was a cash grab by contractor friends of whatever congressmen pushed the project through?

Roger Krone, an executive with virtual fence contractor Boeing, disagreed with portrayals of the spending. He said only $155 million was spent for the deployment of technology to monitor 55 miles of the Arizona border, a rate of $2.8 million a mile.

Krone said of the $828 million spent on the fence, $484 million was for nonrecurring costs, on design, development, supplier and program management and software design and development.

Man, I am in the wrong business.

Boeing. That's the sound they're making as they skip to the bank to deposit that check. $484 million for design and PM? That's ass rape. (because all I can do is laugh at that - paying triple the amount of the actual project on design and overhead)

Maybe Boeing put together some nifty proposals to justify that, but it certainly smells. Most of my contracting career was spent in construction before I moved to the gee whiz stuff I'm doing now. It was rare to see design exceed 20% of construction, so it just sounds so wrong to see design exceed 300% of an electronic fence.

[houndawg]

That's pretty **** sickening dude.

It doesnt matter its not their money.....................................

This project needs some cheap Mexican labor to keep costs down.