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The rare #mepolitics + #civictech thread!
1. Maine just decided to award a monster integrated benefits site to Deloitte for $8 million. This is where people apply get food stamps, healthcare, and other services. See "Integrated Online Services" here: https://www.maine.gov/dafs/bbm/procurementservices/vendors/rfps
1. Maine just decided to award a monster integrated benefits site to Deloitte for $8 million. This is where people apply get food stamps, healthcare, and other services. See "Integrated Online Services" here: https://www.maine.gov/dafs/bbm/procurementservices/vendors/rfps
2. What is Deloitte known for? Well, being very good at getting gov software contracts.& also at ruining said systems and delivering products that are glitchy and cause huge headaches for the users and administrators of the program alike. Just like our current unemployment site!
3. In Rhode Island, Deloitte: "was supposed to streamline eligibility verification for the food stamp program, Medicaid, subsidized child care and cash assistance. It experienced major failures after launching, and the effort to fix it has taken years." https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190315/uhip-debacle-ri-to-extend-contract-as-deloitte-agrees-to-more-concessions
4. So, is it all bad? It's basically locking in the poor delivery of government services for 5+ years (and likely way more) for people who need to access things like food stamps, cash assistance, childcare. See the existing service here: https://www1.maine.gov/benefits/account/login.html
5. Yep, it's very bad news for anyone who wants government to work well. But it's also not a story of one bad actor and a greedy software company. It's the whole system which is being set up to make decisions like this. And there are enough ppl who know it doesn't work.
6. Like, programmer bro, we know you could build a better website. That's not the point. It's not that the website stuff is impossible; it's that our state government's process for buying software is broken and actively harms people's conception of "what government does."
7. Do we think people who are on hold with the labor department today think that government does a good job? Likely not. Do they care that LePage is responsible for much? Not really. But also: Republicans want things to be broken. They succeeded.
8. Even if the final goal isn't a nice website everyone can use to get means-tested-applicable-benefits-based-on-income, we've got to recognize that the effect of this bureaucratic process is people going without food. And millions of tax $ for bad software instead of helping ppl
9. The way this contract was awarded is basically described here perfectly by @pahlkadot:
"monolithic, waterfall, driven by extensive requirements with little to no insight into user needs." https://medium.com/code-for-america/which-side-are-you-on-vendors-1259e18c2d86
"monolithic, waterfall, driven by extensive requirements with little to no insight into user needs." https://medium.com/code-for-america/which-side-are-you-on-vendors-1259e18c2d86
10. Guess what? there was a MAINE company who bid for 3 million less on this same contract.. full disclosure that company sponsors @Open_Maine. Which means they also value agile development and a process which incorporates user needs into the development.
11. So.. what can we do? Reform isn't easy, but the state should seriously reconsider the impact of spending $8 million to repeat the mistakes of the exact same Labor Department system that's failing right now. For one.
12. And, we need to in-house our IT systems. Stat. Let's get a state digital service like California, New York, Colorado and our bretheren in Nova Scotia who have already taken the lobster logo for their provincial digital service, btw
13. The state's IT needs massive overhaul. How long until we connect the dots between government service delivery and people's conception of government? Because atrocious online services only serve to make people believe that whole "government is bad, let's outsource to CEOs" lie
14. By the way, know what's cool? Tax dollars going to create and maintain open source software and to hire and train people! I want my tax dollars to go to an open code base and Maine workers, not to Deloitte. /endthread
