Government IT Project Misses Deadline, Blames Vendor, Hires Same Vendor for Phase 2

OTTAWA – A federal government IT project originally budgeted at $45 million has ballooned to $230 million after seven years of development, with no launch date in sight. The government has blamed the vendor for scope creep, technical deficiencies, and frankly not doing the thing we paid them to do. It has then awarded the same vendor the Phase 2 contract worth $87 million. We have learned valuable lessons, said the departmental CIO. The main lesson is that switching vendors mid-project would require filling out Form T-47-B, which is a known bureaucratic nightmare. It is far more efficient to continue paying the same company, even if they have not delivered anything in seven years. The project, codenamed Project Horizon, was originally intended to modernize a system for tracking government pencils. The scope has since expanded to include tracking all office supplies, employee coffee consumption, and whether anyone has taken a stapler home without signing it out. The vendor, Deloitte McPartners Unlimited, declined to comment but sent a bill for $4.2 million in consulting fees incurred during the media inquiry.

This story involves public funds. See our Hall of Shame for more on the worst abuses of taxpayer money since 2015.