VMware, Carahsoft Pay $75.5 Million To Settle Government Overcharging Lawsuit by Kevin McLaughlin.
From the post:
VMware and reseller partner Carahsoft have agreed to pay $75.5 million to settle a civil lawsuit alleging overcharging of the federal government for VMware products and services over a six-year period, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release Tuesday.
Read the rest of Kevin’s post and see if you can spot the errors in the story. There are at least two (2).
Take your time….
The first error is at the bottom of the first page of the article:
“VMware believes that its commercial sales practice disclosures to the GSA were accurate and denies that it violated the False Claims Act,” the spokesman said in an email. “[VMware] nevertheless elected to settle this lawsuit rather than engage in protracted litigation with one of its important customers – the federal government.”
The error isn’t in Kevin’s reporting but in the VMware statement: “…rather than engage in protracted litigation with one of its important customers – the federal government.”
That statement should read: “rather than engage in protracted litigation with one of its former customer – the federal government.”
How much confidence would you have with a supplier who attempted to cheat you once and even now is involved in questionable dealing in another contract? Army ELA: Weapon Of Mass Confusion? also by Kevin McLaughlin.
The first error being that the federal government didn’t forfeit any rights that VMware may have to its present or future versions of its software. Cheating the sovereign should be severely discouraged.
The second error, again not Kevin’s fault, you will notice the absence of names from the government, VMware and Carahsoft, of people who were involved in the overcharging incident.
Without accountability of the individuals involved in this sorry affair and no doubt hundreds if not thousands of others, defrauding the government will remain commonplace. If the purpose of government is to act as a big cookie jar for contractors, I suppose that is ok.
My personal preference is for an honest and relatively effective government, such as with cybersecurity, project management, etc. Just a personal opinion.