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$722M Hand Scanner "Disaster" Has No End in Sight
By
Sabrina Jaszi
Published Mar 27, 2010
Modified Mar 27, 2010
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By
Sabrina Jaszi
Published Mar 27, 2010
Modified Mar 27, 2010
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Seven years after it was supposed to be completed, CityTime has cost NYC $722 million more than its projected price, and still the city continues to sign fat checks to consultants for the now-notorious biometric timecard system. Mayor Blooomberg went so far as to call CityTime a “disaster,” city Comptroller John Liu labeled it a “money pit” and enraged Brooklyn Councilwoman Letitia James demanded an immediate investigation, according to the Daily News. "The city should get a partial refund because they were overbilled," she said. But it doesn't look like that will happen anytime soon.
CityTime was actually supposed to save the city up to $60 million by doing away with the old, easily-scammed punch card system, by which city employees keep track of their hours. But more than a decade after CityTime launched, only a third of city workers use the computerized hand scanners, and the project is way, way over budget.
That’s because about 200 consultants get salaries of $400,000 or more (complete breakdown here). Eleven are paid upwards of $600,000 and for what? "It's a difficult project," said Constantin Stanca, who for more than a decade has collected a salary of over half a million as a development manager for CityTime. A veteran technology manager who once worked for the project questioned him. "In my three decades in the business, I've never seen salary levels like these," he said.
Since the discovery of these wild, uncapped salaries Bloomberg’s been none too positive about the project. (The large pay-outs came as a surprise and originally he didn’t see to know who in his administration was in charge of CityTime.) But he's now making excuses for the mangled undertaking, and a full-stop seems unlikely. "People who worked on this aren't stupid and aren't lazy," said the mayor, when urged by Liu to stop payments to CityTime consultants. "Some projects are so big and the world changes so fast while you're building them, [you realize] maybe that's not a good way to do anything."
Tagged
city workers
citytime
john liu
letitia james
mayor bloomber
punch cards
timecards
Sabrina Jaszi
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