EDS, US government cooked up fake computer figures

A COMPUTER PROGRAM that was intended to speed up royalty payments to over 300,000 American Indians lost details of the payment but the US Interior Department hid facts from a judge presiding over an inquiry, it has emerged.

And instead of producing accurate figures from the buggy system, the Interior Department used an alternative set of figures cooked up by giant computer firm EDS.

A report by an investigator claimed that "two organisations with ulterior motives" - EDS and the Interior Department, colluded in a venture which helped the functionaries avoid liability, helped the computer contractor sell more kit, and made beneficiaries of the scheme suffer as a result.

Earlier this week, the investigator said that the government department had also painted a rosy picture of a system called the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System, which was intended to speed up payments from oil firms, gas companies and other businesses to a trust fund looking after the money, according to Federal Computer Week.

Last year two functionaries looking after Indian Affairs were held in contempt for not providing accurate information about the computer system. µ

L'INQ
Federal Computer Week