Re: A morals question?

[hlavaty@CRVAX.Sri.Com]

In article <"910520033903.71660.412.CHE77-1"@CompuServe.COM>, 71660.412@CompuServe.COM (Eric C Aker) writes...
> 
>If the hypothetical contractor got a waiver to do the development work
>in C and not Ada, even though there is a validated compiler available, 
>and the waiver was gotten on honest but not totally honest terms then
>what can I do.
> 
>The evidence for the hypothetical waiver was honest and correct but
>ever so slightly skewed. What are the repercussions possible to the
>company, i.e. could the government review the waiver and changed its
>mind if the original evidence had a minor (or major) defect? 
> 
I'm going to guess and say that there was some "engineering interpretation"
done in favor of using C that you feel left out some important facts.  Contrary
to the other reponses here, there isn't a whole lot the customer can (or will)
do here.  Once the contract has been selected, the effort required to prosecute
something like this usually isn't worth it.  Only when the DOD decides to make 
an example of you will find real trouble.

Do I condone this behavior?  Certainly not, and neither should you.  You should
answer to a higher being than your company (namely, yourself and God, if you
believe in him).  If what is happening isn't right in your opinion than you
should take action.  Do you have any occassion to talk to customer 
representatives?  If so, that's your answer.  Pick one you think is a reasonable
person and privately communicate to the person what your view of the situation 
is.  Explicitly state that for job reasons you would prefer not to be associated
with this publicly.  Furthermore, give him/her the right questions to ask at the
next status meeting.  Viola!  Some smart customer rep just caught your company
with their pants down - and you smirk in the shadows.  If you think this sounds
to much like spy stuff, let me assure you it happens all the time (I worked for
6.5 years as a customer rep).  One of my top priorities was always finding
people like yourself who spoke their mind for what they thought was right
regardless of the companies profit motive (i.e. corporate greed).  Once you
have a "friend" as a customer rep, sometimes they can even help out your 
cause (say, program manager, I heard that section y doesn't have enough
computers to meet their computing needs.  What are we doing to solve that?)

If you can't meet with a customer rep (or you don't trust them), you may run
into problems with the fraud number if it's a close call.  Unfortunately, 
phoney fraud is just as serious (for you) as real fraud (for them).  If you
think the decision was very close either way (sounds from your description
that this may be the case), I would be hesitant to involve the "heavies"
(DOD fraud hotline, GAO, etc...).

Jim Hlavaty
My opinions are my own.