Vice Posted September 5, 2014 Posted September 5, 2014 https://washingtonexaminer.com/army-cant-track-spending-on-4.3b-system-to-track-spending-ig-finds/article/2552808 More than $725 million was spent by the Army on a high-tech network for tracking supplies and expenses that failed to comply with federal financial reporting rules meant to allow auditors to track spending, according to an inspector general’s report issued Wednesday. The Global Combat Support System-Army, a logistical support system meant to track supplies, spare parts and other equipment, was launched in 1997. In 2003, the program switched from custom software to a web-based commercial software system. About $95 million was spent before the switch was made, according to the report from the Department of Defense IG. As of this February, the Army had spent $725.7 million on the system, which is ultimately expected to cost about $4.3 billion. The problem, according to the IG, is that the Army has failed to comply with a variety of federal laws that require agencies to standardize reporting and prepare auditable financial statements. “This occurred because DOD and Army management did not have adequate controls, including procedures and annual reviews, in place to ensure GCSS-Army compliance with Treasury and DOD guidance,” the IG report concludes. “Although Army personnel have been responsive to correcting deficiencies identified during the audit, the Army has spent $725.7 million on a system that still has significant obstacles to overcome” to comply with federal financial reporting laws. Among the shortfalls in the Army’s accounting system were discrepancies in reported debits and credits, which would understate the amount spent and overstate the amount still available for the project, according to the IG. Other improper accounting procedures might have made it difficult to spot abnormal balances.
Dupe Posted September 5, 2014 Posted September 5, 2014 There's a flip side. Due to "proper" accounting procedures, I recently had to adjust a roughly $300K purchase request by $0.59 because the receiving party didn't want to deal with fractions of dollars and returned my two quarters, a nickel, and four pennies. It's impossible for the DoD to take an adjustment and move on. Businesses do it all the time.
TreeA10 Posted September 5, 2014 Posted September 5, 2014 They'll want to spend another $725 million on a new tracking system to track money.
pawnman Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 Related.https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2014/03/22/sinkhole-of-bureaucracy/ Here, inside the caverns of an old Pennsylvania limestone mine, there are 600 employees of the Office of Personnel Management. Their task is nothing top-secret. It is to process the retirement papers of the government’s own workers. But that system has a spectacular flaw. It still must be done entirely by hand, and almost entirely on paper.
Majestik Møøse Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 "Now that all the retirees digital data have been turned into paperwork, these workers turn that paperwork into digital data again. They type all the pertinent information into a computer, by hand. You can do a case in as little as an hour, said Bonnie McCandless, the president of the centers local labor union, whose job is entering this data. Or you can do a case as long as eight hours, or two days. Ha, that's great. Later on it talks about how the Program Manager for the one of the failed digital conversion projects was an English Lit major. By his own admission he didn't understand what the contractor was even doing.
Blue Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 From that WP article, emphasis mine: A recent study by the Standish Group, a firm in Boston that researches failures, found that only 5 percent of large federal IT projects in the last decade fully succeeded. Of the rest, 41 percent were failures, canceled before they were turned on. The reasons often echoed the problems in the mine: Federal officials either tried to buy a technology they didn’t fully understand because they lacked the technical skill, or they didn’t test what they were getting until it was too late. Starting to think I got into the wrong field. Being a vendor for Federal IT work seems to be where it's at. Lots of money, with an incredibly low bar for success.
17D_guy Posted September 7, 2014 Posted September 7, 2014 Yawn... I'm just going to leave this here - https://spectrum.ieee.org/riskfactor/aerospace/military/the-us-air-force-explains-its-billion-ecss-bonfire Starting to think I got into the wrong field. Being a vendor for Federal IT work seems to be where it's at. Lots of money, with an incredibly low bar for success. Hey, you get the airlines, I get the IT. That's the deal. 5
Dupe Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 Combining the federal acquisitions process with IT is an absolute nightmare... On the outside, only about 50% of ERP systems are considered successful.
Majestik Møøse Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 While trying to log into Leaveweb just now, I received an error called a "GCSS-AF Failover". Sounds about right.
Lawman Posted September 8, 2014 Posted September 8, 2014 I cant sign on to Web.mail.mil from a NIPR computer in our CP because it blocks the site.... Is it really a surprise to anyone we keep fucking this stuff away. Those people that were teenagers creating terrible websites on geocities and tripod in the early dialup internet days.... They work for the government now.
17D_guy Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 I cant sign on to Web.mail.mil from a NIPR computer in our CP because it blocks the site.... Is it really a surprise to anyone we keep fucking this stuff away. Those people that were teenagers creating terrible websites on geocities and tripod in the early dialup internet days.... They work for the government now. Can confirm, made an awful geocities website. 3
Dupe Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 (edited) Is it really a surprise to anyone we keep fucking this stuff away. Those people that were teenagers creating terrible websites on geocities and tripod in the early dialup internet days.... They work for the government now. Not true at all. Where I now sit in the AF Cyber/IT acquisitions realm, nobody on the government side has technical expertise. We contract that out. While trying to log into Leaveweb just now, I received an error called a "GCSS-AF Failover". Sounds about right. GCSS is a Lockheed Martin product.... Edited September 9, 2014 by Dupe
pawnman Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 I cant sign on to Web.mail.mil from a NIPR computer in our CP because it blocks the site.... Is it really a surprise to anyone we keep fucking this stuff away. Those people that were teenagers creating terrible websites on geocities and tripod in the early dialup internet days.... They work for the government now. I find that hard to believe, since the kids who made Geocities sites actually cared enough about computers to learn basic HTML. Can anyone tell me why the AF has such a hard time with certificates? Every AF website I go to pops up a warning about how the certificates are out-of-date and the website may be trying to spoof me. Related, can anyone tell me why the AF can't figure out how to send me to a new website without using pop-ups? USAA has figured it out. Citibank and Google have figured it out. Yet the AF configures my browser to block pop-ups, then uses pop-ups for every application.
guineapigfury Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 I find that hard to believe, since the kids who made Geocities sites actually cared enough about computers to learn basic HTML. Can anyone tell me why the AF has such a hard time with certificates? Every AF website I go to pops up a warning about how the certificates are out-of-date and the website may be trying to spoof me. Related, can anyone tell me why the AF can't figure out how to send me to a new website without using pop-ups? USAA has figured it out. Citibank and Google have figured it out. Yet the AF configures my browser to block pop-ups, then uses pop-ups for every application. 3
Majestik Møøse Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Are you writing this shit down, 17D?
Lawman Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Not true at all. Where I now sit in the AF Cyber/IT acquisitions realm, nobody on the government side has technical expertise. We contract that out. GCSS is a Lockheed Martin product.... So are you saying its worse than my shitty analogy? Well that explains how we spend 600 million dollars on a website for healthcare and it doesnt work....
17D_guy Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Are you writing this shit down, 17D? Oh, I have been. We got long distance PINS turned off at my base now because someone mentioned it on here. Other stuff I can't help with, but it's good to know.
Lord Ratner Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Oh, I have been. We got long distance PINS turned off at my base now because someone mentioned it on here. Details?
17D_guy Posted September 9, 2014 Posted September 9, 2014 Someone posted in here (probably the "what's wrong" thread) about how stupid it was that we're still using PINs. It was one of those things we'd always done, so I didn't think about it till pointed out and I agreed. I think that's a wake up call we all need from time to time. So I asked around and proposed it to the Comm Sq. CC and he/she agreed. So we got started removing it. I don't know if the CC had to justify it to higher, but I used Wing Safety as the example. If they have to call now, they're not going to fuss with a PIN. The purpose was to stop people from making calls home and all that. But when everyone has a cell with a number from home, or wherever, what's the point? 90% of my calls are long distance when I'm calling a tech on the job or my superintendent. Now.. we haven't advertised this to the base. My expectation is to have it spread word of mouth rather than people just "testing" the system, hammering my switch, and increasing my costs for no reason. Also, there's a few technical issues my guys have overcome with hard work that I'm extremely proud of and a few more remain. International calls (non-DSN) still require a PIN, but I think that's ok. Concerning Certs - I've gotten no official answer, but it's a security setting in the browser that the NOSC seems to require a certain way. Some say they're doing it to spoof the connection so you can't encrypt the communication. Possibly. Proxy might be negotiating the connection and then renegotiating with your broswer, classic man-in-the-middle which would throw that warning. I think that's stupid and way too much work for all the https that goes on. Simple explanation: they only load certs they trust (gov) and pulled trust for all commercial ones. Concerning tabs - No idea. I'm just happy the new portal doesn't look like the aforementioned geocities or myspace sites. But, if you middle click the link (or command-click on mac) it'll open in a new tab. Usually. If there's any GO's on - Can we get a Career cyber guy in-charge of AFCYBER already? https://www.24af.af.mil/library/biographies/ How much longer are you guys going to make it apparent 24th AF is the stepping stone for rank in the space community? Couldn't even swing a cyber chief? There's a pilot CV for Neo's sake. Imagine if that shit happened to a CAF NAF and how you'd explain to the slighted AFSC that they're still important and Ops.
Dupe Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 So are you saying its worse than my shitty analogy? Well that explains how we spend 600 million dollars on a website for healthcare and it doesnt work.... Yes...it's much worse. We gave yet to figure out how to develop a good IT program manager.
17D_guy Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 Yes...it's much worse. We gave yet to figure out how to develop a good IT program manager. No, we just got rid of the whole career field 4 years ago. RIF'd a ton of cyber officers and then offered all the positions to civilians for "continuity" and have a GO for oversight.. who leaves after a couple years. There are professional organizations with legitimate certifications for Proj. Mgmt with emphasis on IT. Their certs are well respected and not easy to earn. Are these part of the hiring requirements? My (legit) masters is in this exact thing. Do you think it's even tracked somewhere to move me to that? Even if it was, all the Trident U grads show about the same thing.
Lawman Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 (edited) No, we just got rid of the whole career field 4 years ago. RIF'd a ton of cyber officers and then offered all the positions to civilians for "continuity" and have a GO for oversight.. who leaves after a couple years. There are professional organizations with legitimate certifications for Proj. Mgmt with emphasis on IT. Their certs are well respected and not easy to earn. Are these part of the hiring requirements? My (legit) masters is in this exact thing. Do you think it's even tracked somewhere to move me to that? Even if it was, all the Trident U grads show about the same thing. So if I follow what your saying we took a field with probably as much of a niche technical requirement in expertise as say the medical group and then essentially stopped tracking who went there? So like if we just let any LtCOL run the base hospital instead of putting the people with the knowledge to actually run it there and keeping them there. Brilliant idea.... Between stuff like this and partnership exercises with our allies I'm starting to think our success in combat isn't because we are so much better at everything, it's that they have somehow found a way to suck worse at it. Edited September 10, 2014 by Lawman
Gravedigger Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 Not exactly. There are cyber positions that require expertise in coding/programming/geeky shit that are tracked and filled by people that have those requirements. These are mostly in the offensive and defensive network ops units. No offense to 17D guy, but base comm folks have no degree requirements because a history major can be chewed out for email not working just as well as a computer engineer. There is an office in AFSPC for both Cyber and Space that tracks the special skills, training and experience that is needed for key jobs. We have separate SURFs for all of this data. IMHO, these guys do a fantastic job tracking progress and ensuring you are getting to the training and development courses required as you progress. As far as developing shitty web pages and AF portal programs, blame the contractor. As of a couple of years ago, you must have a STEM degree (or go to USAFA) to get a space ops assignment. I have a feeling cyber will follow soon, once they are done splitting the AFSC between ops and support. Posted from the NEW Baseops.net App!
Dupe Posted September 10, 2014 Posted September 10, 2014 There are professional organizations with legitimate certifications for Proj. Mgmt with emphasis on IT. Their certs are well respected and not easy to earn. Are these part of the hiring requirements? No. I'm trying to convince folks that we should go train Scrummasters and take an Agile approach. Additionally, we have a severe shortage of CISSPs...
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