NASA and Wa$te

CobraBoy (tbyars@earthlink.net)
Wed, 16 Apr 1997 09:37:13 -0700


(For those who are not aware of the issue at NASA, in early 1996 the CIO
of NASA at Johnson Space Center implemented a PC only standard thereby
removing thousands of Macintoshes from site. Many organizations at JSC
were overwhelmingly Mac based and reported the situation to the Inspector
Generals Office. The IG performed a 6 month extensive investigation and
concurred with the engineers.)

Well, NASA management provided a letter to the Inspector Generals office
this month and put a formal end to the Mac/PC investigation.
Unfortuantely, nothing has been done or will be done to resolve the
situation or take action against those responsible for the waste of your
tax dollars. Nothing. Zero. Zip. And since NASA management allowed the
CIO to purchase thousands of pcs while the investigation was going on,
converting large organizations from the Mac, the issue has become a moot
point.

The IGs report is now available online at the following location.

<http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oig/hq/inspections/g-96-017.html>

You will notice that the IGs office was in full agreement with the
engineers who reported this issue of waste, fraud, and abuse. Some
tidbits in the report:

1) The CIO did not perform any studies to verify cost savings.
2) The studies which clearly showed the cost effectiveness of the Mac at
JSC were ignored by NASA management
3) Rules and regulations were not followed
4) Threats were made to employees
5) The pc only policy was not cost effective.

So. The fight was won, and yet we lost.

If you don't agree with what has happened, all I can say is contact the
following Congressmen and demand action! Up to last month NASA management
has been contacted by these congressmen to explain the situation and
provide details on what will be done to resolve it.

Congressman Nick Lampson 1-800-962-3524 (Ask for Abbey)

Congressman Tom Delay 1-800-962-3524 (Ask for Lori Isnor)

Tim

-

Time exists so everything doesn't happen at once,
Space exists so everything doesn't happen to you.

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