Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!PLUTO.ARC.NASA.GOV!GLASS
From: GLASS@PLUTO.ARC.NASA.GOV (Jay Glass)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: NASA procurement bureaucracy at work
Message-ID: <630097208.0.GLASS@PLUTO.ARC.NASA.GOV>
Date: 19 Dec 89 19:00:08 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 15

Want to get NASA to move quicker and produce more results? Try reforming
the federal procurement system. Case in point: in order to get an
otherwise-free upgrade of Microsoft Word 3.x to 4.0, I needed to write a
full purchase order for the $5.50 handling fee. Worse yet, it was returned
to me two weeks later because I didn't attach a "purchase request review
checklist" and an "acquisition-data processing management review summary."
The paperwork is the same as that required for a $65K purchase of real-time
control s/w for my lab, and comparable to that for a $250K university
research grant. Aargh! 

I'm sure that other NASA employees could describe similar horror stories.

Jay Glass
glass@pluto.arc.nasa.gov
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