CGI Technologies behind ObamaCare site has checkered past


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While the company behind the dysfunctional HealthCare.gov was virtually unknown to the American public until this month, critics say the Obama administration should have known this multibillion-dollar firm had a checkered history with other government contracts.

In projects stretching from Canada to Hawaii, parent company CGI Group and its subsidiaries ran into complaints about its performance. And this was while, and in some cases before, CGI Federal was paid millions, along with other contractors, to create the ObamaCare website.

"The morning I heard CGI was behind [Healthcare.gov], I said, my God, no wonder that thing doesn't work," said James Bagnola, a Texas-based corporate consultant who was hired by the Hawaii Department of Taxation (DOTAX) in 2008.

CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc., another subsidiary, had been responsible for overhauling the IT systems for the Hawaii tax department, and then, developing its new delinquent tax collection services. Not only was the software and implementation problematic, but the second contract, signed in 2009, paid CGI millions for work it did not complete, according to a state audit completed in 2010 on the matter.

Still, they hold contracts all over the Hawaii government. Hawaii's Health Connector, the state's new health exchange for providing insurance options under ObamaCare, hired CGI to build its website. Like HealthCare.gov, the Hawaii portal had immediate problems when it launched on Oct. 1, but those have since been rectified and so far, according to Health Connector officials who spoke with FoxNews.com, they are not blaming CGI.

Bagnola doesn't buy it, saying when they overhauled DOTAX's IT, "the system was broken all the time."

"I can't believe people continue to hire incompetency," he added.

The firm's performance was also called into question when parent company, CGI Group, was hired to design and execute a new $46.2 million diabetes registry for eHealth Ontario, part of the Canadian government health care system. That contract was canceled in September 2012 after a series of delays that rendered the system obsolete, according to news reports at the time.

"They did not meet the requirements of their contract which was faced with many layers of delays, which caused great angst among the health care providers who are trying to do their best," Frances G?linas, a member of Ontario's provincial parliament, told the Washington Examiner, in an Oct. 10 report.

CGI came to national attention after the problems with HealthCare.gov turned out to be much more than a short-term glitch. Since its dubious debut on Oct. 1, it's been determined that the software code and the basic infrastructure of the site's design is at the root of the problem, which is keeping Americans from registering, logging in and buying health insurance.

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Post-USSR area has a specific term for this type of money squandering, laundering and bribery through government contracts - "?????". I don't know if there's an English term for it, but if not, there should be, because it happens everywhere and all the time.

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While the company behind the dysfunctional HealthCare.gov was virtually unknown to the American public until this month, critics say the Obama administration should have known this multibillion-dollar firm had a checkered history with other government contracts.

In projects stretching from Canada to Hawaii, parent company CGI Group and its subsidiaries ran into complaints about its performance. And this was while, and in some cases before, CGI Federal was paid millions, along with other contractors, to create the ObamaCare website.

"The morning I heard CGI was behind [Healthcare.gov], I said, my God, no wonder that thing doesn't work," said James Bagnola, a Texas-based corporate consultant who was hired by the Hawaii Department of Taxation (DOTAX) in 2008.

CGI Technologies and Solutions, Inc., another subsidiary, had been responsible for overhauling the IT systems for the Hawaii tax department, and then, developing its new delinquent tax collection services. Not only was the software and implementation problematic, but the second contract, signed in 2009, paid CGI millions for work it did not complete, according to a state audit completed in 2010 on the matter.

Still, they hold contracts all over the Hawaii government. Hawaii's Health Connector, the state's new health exchange for providing insurance options under ObamaCare, hired CGI to build its website. Like HealthCare.gov, the Hawaii portal had immediate problems when it launched on Oct. 1, but those have since been rectified and so far, according to Health Connector officials who spoke with FoxNews.com, they are not blaming CGI.

Bagnola doesn't buy it, saying when they overhauled DOTAX's IT, "the system was broken all the time."

"I can't believe people continue to hire incompetency," he added.

The firm's performance was also called into question when parent company, CGI Group, was hired to design and execute a new $46.2 million diabetes registry for eHealth Ontario, part of the Canadian government health care system. That contract was canceled in September 2012 after a series of delays that rendered the system obsolete, according to news reports at the time.

"They did not meet the requirements of their contract which was faced with many layers of delays, which caused great angst among the health care providers who are trying to do their best," Frances G?linas, a member of Ontario's provincial parliament, told the Washington Examiner, in an Oct. 10 report.

CGI came to national attention after the problems with HealthCare.gov turned out to be much more than a short-term glitch. Since its dubious debut on Oct. 1, it's been determined that the software code and the basic infrastructure of the site's design is at the root of the problem, which is keeping Americans from registering, logging in and buying health insurance.

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Nothing like an article from fox news to brighten up my day.  I love reading their crap....now if I only had some toilet paper so I can clean out my eyes afterwards.

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Nothing like an article from fox news to brighten up my day.  I love reading their crap....now if I only had some toilet paper so I can clean out my eyes afterwards.

 

Attacking the messenger as usual. Typical.

 

I guess I can infer from your comment that the article is false and that CGI did a great job with healthcare.gov. Wow.

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News like this will continue to come out in addition to terrible corruption we will never hear about. It's the nature of big government to not care about cost effectiveness, efficiency, responsibility. Does anyone honestly believe they didn't know how this company operated before contracting them?

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I do have to question why this didn't come to light before the roll out of healthcare.gov.  CGI's track record is well known in the computer tech industry.  Seems that journalists at Fox (or any other news organization) would have jumped on this, unless they did and I didn't read/see anything about it.

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I do have to question why this didn't come to light before the roll out of healthcare.gov.  CGI's track record is well known in the computer tech industry.  Seems that journalists at Fox (or any other news organization) would have jumped on this, unless they did and I didn't read/see anything about it.

Or don't want to read or report anything about it.  Guarantee that's the case with other organizations...

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Or don't want to read or see anything about it.  Guarantee that's the case with other organizations...

 

Or don't want to read or see...?   Are you referring to me or the news media?

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No different than dealing with any contractor. They all have good references. Who you get working on you projects is often like shooting darts in the dark. The only way to survive is to leave yourself an easy out in the contract.

 

Hawaii ... home cooking burnt the President?!? Lol.

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Or don't want to read or see...?   Are you referring to me or the news media?

News Media... If MSNBC would do some reporting and come across this, they probably wouldn't report on it anyways...

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It's getting more and more difficult to trust any of the news media for even the simplest of news stories.  They rush to be the first and then get it wrong and the way it's reported and all these "experts" from Experts-R-Us...AAARGH. 

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I'm 24, only been working 2 years on a cloud service and as soon as some of the problems started coming out I was so disappointed.  Anyone with any sort of experience working at all on this scale would have been raising red flags left and right.  In fact, they probably quit due to poor management.

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Obviously the Obama Administration wanted a company that matched its level of competency, and found it.

 More like "Obviously the Obama Administration wanted a company that matched its level of idiocracy and found it.

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Uhh, none of this is specific to the current government.  Most government contracts like this are ######ed up around the world.  Victoria's Desalination Plant and Myki public transport ticketing system are the ones that come to mind for me. 

 

Governments are corrupt, contracts are handed out to companies owned by friends, lowest bidder bidding leads to the worst outcomes and then you have to spend more to get people who know what they're doing in (the people who charged more but were passed initially).  

 

This is how governments work, heh.

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Uhh, none of this is specific to the current government.  Most government contracts like this are ****ed up around the world.  Victoria's Desalination Plant and Myki public transport ticketing system are the ones that come to mind for me. 

 

Governments are corrupt, contracts are handed out to companies owned by friends, lowest bidder bidding leads to the worst outcomes and then you have to spend more to get people who know what they're doing in (the people who charged more but were passed initially).  

 

This is how governments work, heh.

 

More often than not, the private sector as well, lol. Given how polarizing Obama is for some, and particularly this "socialist" program, you can't rule out a little sabotage from inside the contractor, you never know. The only way to make this a political issue is to say they "should have known". And that's what's happening because that's what we do.

 

Think about all the ridiculous military contracts. It happens.

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