IBM temporarily barred from government business

MarketWatch ^ | 3/31/2008 | John Letzing

[revtown]

Looks like IBM got caught doing something wrong. I wonder if this applies to IBM as a sub-contractor? That would huge.

[revtown]

Exact link:
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ibm-temporarily-banned-us-government/story.aspx?guid=%7BD307FEA3%2D7784%2D4456%2D88AE%2D0DC8B982D7F2%7D

[Gondring]

Are series?

[Mariner]

Ridiculous.

The govt would cut off it's nose to spite it's face? I think not.

That would be like barring General Dynamics from Defense contracts.

IBM IS the government.

[taxcontrol]

EPA employee gave information to IBM employee that may have been used in a bid. This could be a violation of:

Federal law
EPA contract guidance
IBM business conduct policy

[revtown]

“IBM said that the U.S. attorney’s office served “IBM and certain employees with grand-jury subpoenas requesting testimony and documents” related to interaction between EPA and company employees. IBM said it plans to contest the suspension, which can continue for an initial period of up to one year.”

If IBM contests it, maybe the suspension will be held up pending the investigation and by then IBM will settle up and pay a fine.

[KoRn]

/mark

[muawiyah]

IBM is small potatoes these days. Sounds like someone was trying to play catch-up.

[2ndDivisionVet]

That’s okay, maybe they can get another contract in Germany: http://www.news.com/Selling-technology-to-the-Nazis/2010-1071_3-876539.html

[scrabblehack]

That would be huge. Usually some subsidiary of the main company actually bids on the contract to prevent that very thing.

[hosepipe]

How the mighty have fallen...

[Fox_Mulder77]

Doesn’t China own IBM????

[2ndDivisionVet]

A Chinese company bought their PC business, is all, IIRC.

[Fox_Mulder77]

Thanx :-p

[Mariner]

"IBM is small potatoes these days".

I don't know why you would say such a thing, unless it's from ignorance...or a different metric than I would use.

The Fed govt, and MOST agencies within the Federal Govt...could not function without IBM's largest computers. The IRS. FDA. SEC. EVERY AGENCY with the government has a BIG, BLUE IBM Mainframe...or dozens of them.

The desktop doesn't matter if you can't process payroll or collect taxes.

Sheesh.

[JennysCool]

IBM is small potatoes these days.

That's what they WANT you to think! :-)

[txhurl]

Here in Austin IBM bidded, and won, the contract for the State of Texas to migrate MOST of TX systems/transactions moving to the I-Series (AS/400) in a monstrous migration project from the MVS and other systems.

Turns out IBM *way* underbid the contract to get it, and is underperforming.

I got a bunch of headhunting calls and emails for the migration, and all of them had no real clue what needed to be done.

Glad I didn’t get into the conversion.

[rb22982]

You are kidding, right? IBM is freakin huge still in corporate/government land.

[ShadowAce]

[EasySt]

IBMers have to read and certify their commitment to IBM's Business Conduct Guidelines every year.

If an IBMer behaved unlawfully or even unethically in this situation, their career is over.

IBM has hundreds of thousands of employees. Whether an IBMer is at fault or not in this situation, some IBMers will occasionally screw up and and pay the price with their job (or worse). IBM suffers the consequences and moves on without them, admonishing those that remain.