Private contracts too cozy
Source: Diane Carman, The Denver Post (CO), 10/16/2007
...... Here in Colorado, private firms supply everything, even bus drivers and prisons. Former Gov. Bill Owens was a believer in the 11th commandment, so contracts for public services during his terms exploded.
Unfortunately, oversight of those contracts didn't keep pace.
The most glaring example of the mess created by overconfidence in private contractors was the Owens administration's bumbling attempt to modernize state government through random, uncoordinated - and very expensive - information-technology systems.
Eight years and nearly $300 million later, Owens moved on, leaving his successor with a bunch of pricey computer systems that couldn't compute.
Among them: