Posts Tagged ‘Government audits’
What government audits of public purchases show every buyer.
In the book: Chapter 1: The Illusion of Value (1) · Chapter 6: Tech Bloat as Governance Failure (1) · Chapter 7: Value Is Not Promised; It Is Proven (1) · Chapter 8: The Buyer Lifecycle Is Progressive Governance (2) · Chapter 9: The Value Control Loop (5) · Chapter 16: MAVEN: Controlled Evaluation (1) · Chapter 17: VIGOR: Governance and Realization (1) · Chapter 21: Decision Artifacts That Govern Outcomes (1)
Ontario’s AI Note-Taker Accuracy Fixes Start at the Next Purchase
Ontario’s auditor found errors in notes from all 20 approved AI note-taking systems it reviewed for doctors. The accuracy fixes that followed apply to future purchases; current contracts gained an annual security report.
Read MoreMaryland Renewed an Unfinished System Without Telling the Board
Maryland’s attorney general’s office renewed a software contract without telling the state board the system was unfinished. The audit’s fixes check deliverables and invoices, and none asks whether the system fit each unit.
Read MoreKansas Paid $2.8 Million and Plans to Return to the Old System
Kansas paid $2.8 million for 16 deliverables and plans to revert to the system it meant to replace. A Kansas monitoring record and a Michigan audit show what goes missing when the people watching a contract change.
Read MoreAustralia’s Munitions Contract Let the Supplier Grade Itself
An Australian audit of a munitions contract shows a buyer that wrote supply, capability and cost into the contract and tied the supplier’s profit to the measures easiest to count. The capability measure was self-assessed.
Read MoreA Post-Implementation Review That Never Asked If the System Worked
An Australian agency’s plan called for a post-implementation review. The workshop it held after launch identified four priority actions, each about how projects are run. None concerned what the new system was bought to do.
Read MoreA Federal IT Fund Required Savings Estimates but Not Savings
A federal modernization fund required a savings estimate with every proposal, and repayment did not depend on the savings arriving. Eight years later its administrator and its auditor count the results differently.
Read MoreAmtrak Paid for Hours With No Measure of What They Produced
An Amtrak audit questioned nearly all the spending on a technology contract over missing paperwork. The contract paid for hours and had no explicit performance measures, so nobody could show what the hours produced.
Read MoreAn Australian Audit Found Upgrades Marked Complete but Unverified
An Australian audit found a department had marked every upgrade metric complete, yet the auditors could not verify the upgrades. Checking a result takes a buyer’s own handover record and funded upkeep.
Read MoreFederal Contract Reviews Will Ask Six Questions, None on Results
Federal buyers must review their schedule purchase agreements in writing every year. Under the acquisition overhaul that review is going from three items to six, and none asks what the purchase produced.
Read MoreRewritten US Federal Quality Rules Never Check the Result
The federal quality rules were rebuilt from a blank page last year. The word verify appears three times in them, and none of the three asks what the purchase was supposed to produce.
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