IT Contractors Ripping Off IRS (and YOU)

 Don't talk about it.  FIX IT.

 The treasury department’s Internal Revenue Service division is spending billions on technology contractors but gets little in return, says a technology consultant hired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) office....

You should really watch the video, but here are a couple of snippets:

 ...We process about the same amount of data as a mid-sized bank. A typical mid-size bank will have somewhere between 100 and 200 people in it, and they’ll have an operations and maintenance budget in the $20 million-a-year range. We have 8,000 people and our operations and maintenance budget is $3.5 billion a year. I don’t really know why yet, but I will tell you, 80 percent of the budget goes to contractors and licenses....

Are they really just stealing the money?

 You find [existing] contracts that are $10 million, $20 million, $30 million, $50 million and you just ask “Why are we doing this?” And [the answer is] “I don’t know.” Then you cancel it, and then nothing [bad] happens. It is just inertia

Even more .........ahhh..........interesting.........is this:

... the problem is worsened by contractors’ massive use of imported, subordinated, no-rights H-1B contract workers in the management and line jobs once held by outspoken American professionals...

What the Hell?  Some random dude from India is playing with IRS data?

If you want to take an educated guess as to the names of the con-artist thieves contractors, go here, scroll down to "North America" and look for firms headquartered in Virginia.  They are not the only ones, but it's a very good start.

It's not all bad. 

 ...The career staff [NOT contractors] has been super cooperative. I think we’ve so far cut about $1.5 billion from the modernization budget, mostly projects that we’re going to continue to put us down this death spiral of complexity in our code base. I think most people that I’ve interacted with are really excited [to see that] somebody actually cares now. They’ve been in a situation where their hands are tied and they can’t solve the things that they know need to be solved. My experience has obviously been very positive working with them....

"Complexity" is another word for "workarounds" which are a specialty of Indian coders.  And--of course--"complexity" will require more and more "help" as time goes on.  That's the design.

About time it comes to a screeching halt.