@BrianFaughnan calls this story ‘Flaming Skull’-worthy, and I am inclined to agree:
Software vendor Oracle provided information last week to the U.S. House and Energy Committee claiming the website was operational in February, but that the state of Oregon pulled the plug on it for political reasons.
[snip]
“Cover Oregon executives have stated to Oracle that the application functionality is sufficient to support individual enrollment,” Oracle president Safra Catz wrote in a letter addressed to Cover Oregon interim director Clyde Hamstreet and state CIO Alex Pettit. “However, Cover Oregon has not agreed to give individuals direct access to the application. Thus Cover Oregon, not Oracle, made the decision to keep the exchange closed to individuals even though the functionality has been delivered by Oracle.”
The allegation here – and it’s unusually blunt, too – from Oracle is that they were given the boot despite their allegedly eventually having a working system because: a, competitor Deloitte Consulting provided a self-serving analysis of the situation; and b, Governor John Kitzhaber is planning to run for a fourth term on how shocked, shocked! he is that there was incompetence going on at this establishment. Katu.com says that the presentation didn’t point any fingers, but it’s hard how you define this: Continue reading Oracle claims John Kitzhaber killed eventually-functional Cover Oregon site for political purposes.