White House Muzzling All Who Worked on Healthcare.gov by Jongsstraw

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

White House Muzzling All Who Worked on Healthcare.gov

POSTED BY: JONGSSTRAW
UPDATED: Monday, November 25, 2013 13:53
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Monday, November 25, 2013 1:53 PM

"The Obama administration “has requested that all government officials and contractors involved (in the development of the website) keep their work confidential,” according to the New York Times, in what appears to be at least in part – and perhaps in whole – an effort to minimize the release of information about the development of the catastrophe known as Healthcare.gov.

A New York Times piece running today mentions the information blackout in explaining why sources for the story, which details the incompetent development of the website, would not allow their names to be used.

The story puts on gory display a administration that failed spectacularly both in the planning and implementation of the website project.

The government had huge ambitions which could not possibly be realized in the time alotted:

The prime contractor, CGI Federal, had long before concluded that the administration was blindly enamored of an unrealistic goal: creating a cutting-edge website that would use the latest technologies to dazzle consumers with its many features. Knowing how long it would take to complete and test the software, the company’s officials and other vendors believed that it was impossible to open a fully functioning exchange on Oct. 1.

Government officials, on the other hand, insisted that Oct. 1 was not negotiable. And they were fed up with what they saw as CGI’s pattern of excuses for missed deadlines . . .

The online exchange was crippled, people involved with building it said in recent interviews, because of a huge gap between the administration’s grand hopes and the practicalities of building a website that could function on opening day.

President Obama failed to delegate authority to anyone who could exercise full control over the operation. And far from being unaware of what was going on, White House aides were constantly sticking their noses in.

Over the past three years five different lower-level managers held posts overseeing the development of HealthCare.gov, none of whom had the kind of authority to reach across the administration to ensure the project stayed on schedule.

As a result, the president’s signature initiative was effectively left under the day-to-day management of Henry Chao, a 19-year veteran of the Medicare agency with little clout and no formal background in software engineering.

Mr. Chao had to consult with senior department officials and the White House, and was unable to make many decisions on his own. “Nothing was decided without a conversation there,” said one agency official involved in the project, referring to the constant White House demands for oversight.

Instead of making a plan and sticking to it, the White House made it up as it went along."
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/11/23/white-house-muzzling-worke
d-healthcaregov/

No one has said I'm charged with killing anyone. I'm just a patsy!

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