

Why You Don't Want to Code for a Government Department - dfranke
http://www.jgc.org/blog/2007/08/why-you-dont-want-to-code-for.html

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nostrademons
It can be lucrative, however...

One of my coworkers once worked for a company that sold software to the
government. Their software didn't work - at all. It didn't run. However, this
being the government and the company being staffed with excellent salespeople,
they didn't find that out until they'd already forked over their million
dollars or so. They just ate the cost and never used the software.

The kicker was that the project was classified, and so the government agency
couldn't _tell_ anyone that the program didn't work. Not even other government
agencies. So this company went right ahead selling the same software-that-
didn't-work to multiple government agencies.

Your tax dollars at work.

~~~
aston
Only topped by the government paying (accidentally, to their marginal credit)
for half million dollar washers: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/08...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/08/16/AR2007081602230.html)

