NYC 911 Mismanagement, $700m Over Budget

A report by New York City’s top management investigator has found the city’s 911 upgrade project has been seriously mismanaged, has passed $2 billion in costs and is not close to being completed. The project began in 2004, and last October the Department of Investigation (DOI) warned the project was out of control and $700 million over budget. The latest report is scathing in its criticism of almost every aspect of the project, including that managers misrepresented the project’s status to former mayor Michael Bloomberg and did not properly supervise outside constructors. A former Bloomberg aide criticized the report before its release, claiming the 911 upgrade was a “tremendous success,” and that the DOI report was neither “thorough” or “objective.” Among the criticism were that the project lacked vision and planning, was ill-defined, set unrealistic expectations, had inadequate staffing and had no central decision-making authority. Download (pdf) the entire 112-page report, and read an editorial calling the 911 project an example of “epic incompetence.”