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Course Coursehero 5 Tutor Questions #3

Just before the 2010 census, the U.S. Commerce Department canceled a plan to acquire 500,000handheld computers they had ordered to tabulate data. According to Commerce SecretaryCarlos Gutierrez, costs had skyrocketed. He blamed the problem on “a lack of effectivecommunications with one of our major suppliers.” Apparently, there was plenty of blame to goaround. Secretary Gutierrez noted that the Census Bureau had submitted numerous technicalchanges to the vendor, Harris Corporation. This greatly increased the cost and the complexity ofthe devices. Gutierrez stated, “The Census Bureau was unaccustomed to working with anoutside vendor on such a large contract.” He also pointed out that the vendor had submitted aninitial estimate of $36 million to operate a help desk to assist census-takers, but that figure hadjumped to $217 million. “It was a bad estimate. I can’t think of a better way to say it. Harris gaveus the number. We accepted it. It was totally underestimated.”
 

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