“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wasted $1 million on virtual data storage it bought in 2008, the agency’s internal watchdog said, part of a series of investigations into the agency’s procurement practices,” Sarah N. Lynch reports for Reuters.
“The findings could provide ammunition to Republican lawmakers seeking to deny extra money for the SEC, concerned by the U.S. budget deficit but also looking to starve regulators of funding to implement the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul law,” Lynch reports. “In the December report, Kotz investigated the SEC’s acquisition of data storage technology, which included items from Apple Inc. and virtual storage provided by a firm called Cloverleaf Communications, later acquired in 2010 by Dot Hill Systems. The report, dated December 14, 2010, was obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request.”
“According to the investigation, an Apple salesman convinced the agency that Cloverleaf could provide a cheaper solution to the agency’s data storage and backup woes,” Lynch reports. “Although there were other companies that offered similar products, Kotz said the SEC violated federal contracting procedures by securing a no-bid contract with Cloverleaf, a company with which the SEC had no experience. Kotz said the contract actually proved ‘to be more expensive than other, better-known and less risky alternatives.'”
Lynch reports, “He also found the SEC improperly shared budget information with Apple and went ahead with purchases before getting proper approval and before performing reviews. Representatives of Dot Hill, Apple and the SEC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ooh, one miilllliion dollars! We blame Dr. Evil.
We’re not excusing or condoning any waste, but please: $1 million dollars out of the total money wasted annually by the U.S. government is akin not to a drop of water in a bucket, but to one molecule of H2O in the Pacific Ocean. We wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the government’s “series of investigations” into the matter cost more than the amount that was “wasted.”
This seems more like an attempt to smear Apple than anything else.
How about the SEC “waste” some money investigating the obvious manipulation of Apple’s stock?
I agree with the MDN take. Apple allegedly suggested an inferior product or service, but no one held a gun to the SEC ‘s heads forcing them to go with it sight unseen.
Actually it’s an attempt to smear anything or anyone that attempts to put the brakes on out of control corruption and greed.
sources say agents from the SEC were hanging around Apple parkade late at night dressed in baggy pants and baggy hooded sweaters, and the apple employee involved was wearing a ballcap crooked, and wearing white apple headphones he MAY or MAY NOT have purchased at an Apple retailer…
This from Republican fucktards who think women’s health is a waste but cutting subsidies for the obscenely wealthy oil industry is “new taxes”. That 1984 Doublespeak people routinely worry about? The US right wing has been using it for decades.
… there’s that disturbance in the field again – it’s amorphous, fog-like, almost palpable, like depression or a migraine, like a demonic attack….
Republicans don’t think women’s health is a “waste”, Bozo. They do feel, however, that using their tax dollars to fund killing babies in the womb and calling it “women’s health” is wrong.
This seems more like an attempt to smear Apple than anything else.
Yes. Because the entire world is against Apple. It’s a massive conspiracy.
No it isn’t.
It’s a report by an internal watchdog. It says someone made a bad spending decision. The same kind of bad purchasing decisions that governments make around the world every day of the year.
And it will be leveraged by people who have worked tirelessly to prevent the SEC from doing any kind of job for the last decade or so.
The budget of the SEC is $1.258 billion. This is $1 million. Which is around 0.08%. Call me when people get excited about the Department of Defense doing something stupid with 0.08% of its budget or being encouraged by politicians of either stripe to buy a jet engine they don’t want.
Thanks for putting this into perspective.
It isn’t what they spent or over spent on data storage. it is what is the savings over what they were already spending.
So what was saved over the existing SEC’s data storage when it was farmed out? Were they spending $2 million or $5 million a year at that time? And if some one under bid Cloverleaf and it took them another half year at say $2 million a year then it would cost more that all that was spent to go with Cloverleaf.
If you are on fire, do you shop around for the cheapest bottled water deal? Idiots!
You are looking into how a small trash fire was put out and can’t see the forest fire all around you!
Any amount of wasted money is bad. Hey MND, think what you could do with 1 million dollars. Apple and the Sec screwed up, call it for what it is and don’t be all so pro Apple, they are a company and they can screw up and are only around for profit.
“Republican lawmakers…looking to starve regulators of funding”
A favorite technique, when they can’t rescind regulation, de-fund the auditors. Largely responsible for the S&L disaster of the 80s as well as the recent meltdown.
“… he was starving in some deep mystery, like a man who is sure what is true…”
This story seems a bit light in the details.
1) Why would an Apple salesperson suggest a Cloverleaf solution?
2) Can they tell us more about the “bugs”? Every installation has its own teething issues.
3) Getting the gov’t to investigate a $1M procurement probably cost them $250k in expenses.
The story is complete crock. There is no way knowing how much another solution would have cost. 1 million in these kind of project are in the margin of error, when things always have bugs.
Total crap PR stunt by the SEC bozo.
There isn’t a camera with a shutter speed fast enough to record the time it takes to waste $1 million in Iraq.
Disappointing that this is even being discussed about Apple. MDN’s take is crap. Good companies don’t have these kind of transactions waiting around to be unearthed!
I agree. It was MDNs idea to put Apple’s name in the headline and then close out their comment with: This seems more like an attempt to smear Apple than anything else.
Who’s smearing whom, MDN?
With such an illnumerate take, MDN needs to go back to school.
Seriously.
The ratios in Washington vs. the examples in water are of by close to a googol.
Indeed. Perhaps you as well.
So he Apple RECOMMENDED a 3rd party service and the hoofs went with it.
This just Reuters coming across the Apple name and this becomes a big news story.
Bahutu drops
Yet another example of the government screwing up and blaming a successful company for there mistakes.
How much MORE money will they waste investigating this problem. How about we investigate the BILLIONS of dollars wasted by contractors in Iraq on half built and poorly built infrastructure.
Ad for the financial overhaul, it doesnt go far enough yet they are doing everything they can to wriggle out of it. They showed they couldnt monitor themselves, they deserve all the regulation that can be thrown at them.
That Apple is involved is coincidental and maybe will be used by the Microsoft camp, But there’s no Apple technology involved, so I don’t see how it reflects badly on Apple directly.
This story is just about politicians justifying their existence in advance of the upcoming 2012 elections.
Did you notice that they didn’t say that the solution did not meet their needs, nor did they say it was “risky”, they said there were “less risky” alternatives. Seems like all smoke blown by folks that did not get the contract.
A guy in the SEC, calls his sales buddy over at Apple and tries to work a deal.
There wasn’t enough money in the SECs budget to get all the hardware they needed so the sales guy said, call my buddy over at Cloverleaf, who can make you a good deal on fake, er., virtual computers.
What they didn’t know was, once you turn off the power all the virtual computers disappear!
This shouldn’t be a bad reflection on Apple or Cloverleaf. The people at the SEC didn’t follow proper procedures in getting bids from other companies and doing research.
Its like when we buy extra RAM or hard drives for our computers; do you shop around to find the best price/quality or just buy from Walmart or your local store.
And did the SEC get this ‘recommendation’ from Apple Corporate, or did these guys just walk into their local Apple Store and ask a Mac Specialist/Genius? Sounds like SEC didn’t do enough research before spending their money. Lesson learned, next time do some research like most of us here on this board do.
@MDN Take.
Your Pacific ocean analogy is hyperbole on the order of 6.02×10^28 to one. 😛
$1 mil is upfront cost.
TCO is a lot less for Apple products, which a lot of people seem to miss taking only purchase price into account.
Want some chips with that bowl of Avogadro?
MDN’s take is flawed. Taken in the aggregate, a million here and a million there is what got us in this stinking mess in the first place.