Remarkably Bad, Even For a Government That Loves, Loves, LOVES to Waste Taxpayer Money

The Washington Post details how $170 million system the FBI used to upgrade their paper-based filing system turned into a computerized mess that cannot be used.

Let me give you some additional background. Far more than this $170 million was wasted. It may not be a stretch to say the waste just within the Department of Justice, which handles both the FBI and CIA among other agencies, runs well into billions.

For years, the FBI and other government agencies would DEMAND huge money to upgrade to worthwhile computers. Almost every year, they got the money. But instead of spending it on the authorized PC upgrades, people like Louis Freeh and others would just spend it on other crap they knew could and would not be authorized (stuff like highly questionable travel, paying informants who had no credibility, etc.). This happened for the better part of two decades that I know about so who knows how much longer it went on.