Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 684 posts

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#481

Post by [deleted] »

PeterStuer wrote: post #394
heisenbit wrote: post #217

Consultants are misused if employed on a constant basis instead of employing enough senior staff directly. There are well known drivers on both sides that tend to promote such an unhealthy setup. What is concerning at the US government is not cutting consulting but at the same time cutting staff and on top creating a hostile environment for senior staff. This is unprecedented and is not something one would do in the…

You have to understand consultancies in IT are just brokers. They buy in "inventory" of "profiles" at as low a cost as possible, and sell that inventory to their customers for as much as possible. So you've got your CS graduate which you recruit and pay $40/hr, slap a badge on them and rent them out for $120/hr. Once in a while you fall short and need to hire some freelancers for $60/hr. That's it. As your gov agency…

[deleted]

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#482

Post by insane_dreamer »

This might be the only smart "waste cutting" that the government has done so far.

Ideally, there would be a Digital Services government department, staffed with properly compensated people (to attract good quality talent) that the other government agencies would "contract" to build their services, rather than paying through the nose to Deloitte (who then offshores most of the work anyway). Then maintaining the services could be done by the contracting gov agency once completed (with support from DSA).

Oh wait, we had a Digital Services, the USDS, and they built some pretty good stuff too. Could have been a model for other work. Except that they just got gutted and taken over by DOGE goons. Wonderful.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#483

Post by jordanpg »

next_xibalba wrote: post #108
mikeocool wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have experience in technology and biomedical research. IT consultants, particularly from the large firms, are very overpriced for the value they provide. Blindly cutting NIH grants (even some of the ones that sound silly on paper) and funding for research institutions is doing great harm to progress in modern medicine. Multiple things can be true at once.

[flagged]

> There is so much fake, useless research produced with NIH dollars.

You're going to need more that 2 examples (one of which has nothing to do with NIH) to substantiate this claim.

Have you been to the doctor recently? One of your loved ones?

See if you can find something important to your family in this chart: https://report.nih.gov/funding/categorical-spending#/

Take a look at what was funded recently.

Putting aside how you or your family has personally benefited from items on the list, please point out the "fake, useless research".

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#484

Post by IncreasePosts »

sjsdaiuasgdia wrote: post #341
IncreasePosts wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all of the money that was used to produce new arms?

I'm not attempting to justify all military spending by the US, and have no desire to do so. I am not one to quote Smedley. I am saying that support for Ukraine is pretty different from the kinds of behaviors that make people say "the USA shouldn't be the world police!"

> I am not one to quote Smedley.

Then why are you arguing with me? I was pointing out the contradiction of people who do that. I feel like you think I'm saying the US shouldn't support Ukraine. I'm all on board with the US supporting Ukraine. I'm saying the US needs a powerful military if you want it to support Ukraine, which is at odds with people who are fully behind the quotes that come from Butler and Eisenhower's farewell address.

> I am saying that support for Ukraine is pretty different from the kinds of behaviors that make people say "the USA shouldn't be the world police!"

And yet, to even consider helping Ukraine in any meaningful way, the US needs an extremely strong, modern military.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#485

Post by [deleted] »

whimsicalism wrote: post #467
bumby wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your stance seems to be at odds with the freedom of association protected by the US Constitution.

The protections offered to unions goes far beyond standard freedom of association. Generally I think that is okay, but not in the case of public unions.

[deleted]

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#486

Post by next_xibalba »

snake42 wrote: post #450
next_xibalba wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> cannot be taken seriously as a workable solution ... in your opinion. More regulation will just lead to more and more ineffectual bureaucracy. "More regulation" as an answer is why nothing gets built in California. "More regulation" is why the Vogtle Unit 4 in Georgia took 20 years to permit and complete, whereas the same can be done in under 5 years in China. "More regulation" is why it takes 10 years and $3 billi…

What an incredibly myopic view of things. China has been building nuclear successfully and worked out the kinks. The US basically paused all production and was trying to start over. You can't seriously blame it all on bureaucracy, when a lot of what was lost is institutional knowledge. Kind of like how your "burn it all down" approach would work for academia. Despite how things could be structured better, in medicine…

Why did the U.S. “pause all production”?

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#487

Post by Spooky23 »

wonderwonder wrote: post #365
Spooky23 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing that people so committed to constitutional principles were able to enact the largest tax increase in history without the advice and consent of congress. Impressive even for tax and spend republicans. In democracy loving areas of the British Empire, that type of arbitrary action led to revolutions.

They absolutely have the consent of Congress. Congress can stop this at any time. They elect not to. Their silence is consent in this case. You can attribute that silence to active support or cowardice but either way they can stop it and don't so they approve of it. "In democracy loving areas of the British Empire, that type of arbitrary action led to revolutions." Not sure if you have taken a look at Britain lately…

The law is still the law regardless of the congress’s desire or ability to execute change. A change in the majority doesn’t require a proactive affirmation.

With respect to the British Empire, you may want to review the concept of “no taxation without representation”.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#488

Post by wat10000 »

bumby wrote: post #226
whimsicalism wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is there is literally no incentive to make sure you are hiring the right people in government. nobody is sacked if you dont make your numbers, xyz. higher salary bands are a neccessary but not sufficient condition to get competent operators.

A counter point: Salary should be decent, but I’m not wholly convinced it needs to be at “market rate.” By having reasonable rates but below “market” value, you are likely creating a selection bias for people who are in it for the mission more than they are in it for the money. I think that’s a good thing. It’s like the idea that politicians should be allowed to trade stocks or else you won’t get the “best” talent. I…

You also create a selection bias for people who are bad at what they do and can’t get a better paying job.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#489

Post by Spooky23 »

monero-xmr wrote: post #357
Spooky23 wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s amazing that people so committed to constitutional principles were able to enact the largest tax increase in history without the advice and consent of congress. Impressive even for tax and spend republicans. In democracy loving areas of the British Empire, that type of arbitrary action led to revolutions.

Huh? Trump won the popular vote. Maybe make better arguments in the next election if you don't like the current leader, rather than a violent revolution to overturn a democratically elected leader

Trump is President, not king or Caesar.

Re: Pentagon to terminate $5.1B in IT contracts with Accenture, Deloitte

#490

Post by JumpCrisscross »

PeterStuer wrote: post #394
heisenbit wrote: post #217

Consultants are misused if employed on a constant basis instead of employing enough senior staff directly. There are well known drivers on both sides that tend to promote such an unhealthy setup. What is concerning at the US government is not cutting consulting but at the same time cutting staff and on top creating a hostile environment for senior staff. This is unprecedented and is not something one would do in the…

You have to understand consultancies in IT are just brokers. They buy in "inventory" of "profiles" at as low a cost as possible, and sell that inventory to their customers for as much as possible. So you've got your CS graduate which you recruit and pay $40/hr, slap a badge on them and rent them out for $120/hr. Once in a while you fall short and need to hire some freelancers for $60/hr. That's it. As your gov agency…

> consultancies in IT are just brokers

This is also a lot of PE. College graduates want to live in a city and work for a “reputable” company. The founder of the Baton Rouge chemical plant, meanwhile, doesn’t recruit in New York and Los Angeles. So he hires Deloitte or gets taken over by Bain who hires some graduate and takes 40% of their pay in exchange for letting them commute from a city during the week and say they work in PE on Raya.

Post reply on HN