West Virgnia Auditor Finds Cisco Router Purchase Not Performed Legally 280
coondoggie writes "West Virginia wasted millions in federal grant money when it purchased 1,164 Cisco routers for $24 million in 2010, a state audit concluded. A report issued this month by the West Virginia Legislative Auditor found the state used a 'legally unauthorized purchasing process' when awarding the router contract, paid for with federal stimulus funds, to Cisco. The auditor also found Cisco 'showed a wanton indifference to the interests of the public' in recommending the investment in its model 3945 branch routers, the majority of which were 'oversized' for the requirements of the state agencies using them, the report (PDF) stated."
Overprized (most likely) and oversized ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking at the regular wholesale price in Germany (which is most likely higher than in the US), a price of $20k per piece would require e.g. a voice bundle. Plus, with a purchase of that many devices, Cisco would allow for a project price that would save at least another 20-30% on the purchase ... ... 29xx series will in most cases handle any "regular" speed used in WAN environments, even with partial 1G speeds ...
As for the oversized, unless they were setting up every site with full 1G or more, they are oversized by at least one or two models
Re:Cisco Sucks BUT... (Score:3, Interesting)
The way to win would have been to hire or use a CCDA or CCDP certified consultant. The design associate/professional track is for consulting on Cisco networking device options, feature sets and port density.
Unfortunately, most consultant firms hire with only CCNA certification which means you are knowledgeable enough to be dangerous.
Re:Newspeak (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I work in the office where this occurred although NOT a part of this mess...
Having said that, if anyone has ever tried to work with the WV purchasing division you come to realize they practice real hard to rise to a level of incompetency the likes of which would make a pinhead blush. This isn't the first time officials have tried to "get around" them. Joe Manchin himself used a practice called stringing to avoid using them when he was governor. Projects languish over there for years meanwhile the clock is ticking on the funds available. I have had a contract sit there for 18 months with no end in sight.
I am not trying to excuse what was done simply trying to get others to see a broken system in this state. When you make things so difficult to work with of course people try to find a way a way around it. That is human nature. This incident has less to do with any sort of corruption (although some did exist in the Cisco sales rep and his representations) than it had to do with trying to meet the conditions of the grant quickly which was one of the conditions itself. Remember, stimulus funds were supposed to be used for "shovel ready" projects. Few states met that requirement....
Re:It's honestly slightly astonishing... (Score:5, Interesting)
In private sector, if you do a bad job, you eventually go bankrupt and lose your job
In theory and in the long-run, perhaps, but this can take a very long time, and may never happen if other things outweigh it. I have some second-hand experience with how things work in the oil industry, and procurement there is a mess in part because it really has only a marginal effect on the company's long-term survival, which depends almost entirely on a mixture of oil exploration on the one hand, and geopolitical factors like the price of oil and whether Russia is going to confiscate your mineral rights, on the other hand. Overpaying for Cisco routers is lost in the noise: if a company like Exxon is doing well, it can afford it, and if it's going to go bankrupt, it won't be because of Cisco routers.
Re:It's honestly slightly astonishing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Running a small PC repair shop in the 90's we wanted to be able to support the local schools as we felt we could easily provide better prices services than they where getting. But i can tell you that we also had to give them a much higher rate than normal because there contract agreements had some insane terms.
My personal favorite was that when publishing a product on the price-list we MUST guaranty availability at that price point for 7 years. At first i figured that you had to keep that price, but in the fine text it meant you had to keep replacement stock too. If say 6 years of it being on the list they wanted one and you didn't have it and could not provide it you where liable to replace all of there previous purchases for that component with a compatible component (at your expense) from the vendor list (either form your self or another vendor) and they where the ultimate decider on what was considered compatible. In the end we selected a very limited selection of what we normally offered and we did over charge a lot because we would basically have to ensure availability for 7 years, so we would put it out there marked up and watch the demand and then as the product got harder to stock we would stock pile them to the point we could ensure availability.
We made a lot of money, but so much money was wasted that it just isn't even funny. I still have some 3c905b's from way back in this mess. Personally i'm glad not to be dealing with that stuff anymore.