Montreal based CGI Federal got a $4.5 million contract with the IRS to provide “critical function and management support” for its Obamacare tax program, seven months after federal officials terminated it for mismanaging the healthcare website, reported The Daily Caller.
The company was dismissed in January 2014. The new contract was signed on Aug. 11, 2014 and expires on Aug. 15, 2015, according to the Federal procurement Data System.
Before the company was dismissed in January 2014, then HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the CGI-designed website a “debacle,” saying: “I am as frustrated and angry as anyone with the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov.”
Turning Point Global Solutions reviewed CGI’s performance on Healthcare.gov and reported that 21,000 lines of defective software code were inserted by CGI.
Scott Amey, the general counsel for the non-profit Project on Government Oversight that reviews government contracting, was not too happy with this contract.
“CGI was the poster child for government failure,” he told The Daily Caller. “I am shocked that the IRS has turned around and is using them for Obamacare IT work.”
CGI was also fired by Vermont and Massachusetts for failing to deliver on their Obamacare websites. The company was also fired in Canada by Ontario health officials for the same reasons, according to The Daily Caller.
About seven million Obamacare policyholders and 20 million Americans who don’t have healthcare coverage will depend on the proper IRS processing of their 2014 income tax returns, says The Daily Caller. This could lead to some Americans receiving smaller tax refunds or pay more out-of-pocket for their Obamacare coverage.
The IRS has not commented on the CGI contract.
