CGI Federal

CGI Federal is a leading IT partner of the U.S. government with head offices in Montreal, Canada - made infamous for the failure of the ObamaCare website launch.^[1] They were awarded the no-bid contract from HHS. For more than 36 years, U.S. defense, civilian and intelligence agencies have partnered with CGI to support their mission-essential needs at every stage of program, product and business lifecycle. These partnerships fuel the deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing their clients and inform the development of solutions to help them improve outcomes and maximize results. CGI Federal employs over 25,000 people worldwide.^[2]

CGI Federal bases their client-centric partnerships on:

Mission expertise in defense, energy and environment, healthcare, homeland security, financial management, diplomacy and international development and housing.
In-demand services such as cloud computing, cybersecurity, advanced engineering, communications, enterprise integration, operational logistics, systems engineering and training.
Client proximity model allowing us to honor our commitments and be deeply rooted in client communities and locally-accountable for project success.

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ObamaCare Website

On October 1st, 2013, the ObamaCare website launched. It was reported that 7 million users were needed to make it viable. As of October 17, 2013, a total of roughly 51,000 users had signed up at the website. Including exchanges, approximately 30,000 participants signed up for actual healthcare benefits. In many states, no one signed up at all and there were single digit attendees at training seminars held to instruct users on the navigation the healthcare system.

The site itself does not work. To even view what the different levels of entry costs are, you must sign up first. The information does not seem to be deletable after entry as well. Almost all applicants were unable to sign-up for benefits. There have been reports that a thousand routines are used to call one function, that gibberish is in the code and comments and that the site was never intended to work. Testing seems to have been non-existent and the Obama Administration was warned the launch should be delayed. Over $500 million was spent on the site.^[3] Its cost was originally estimated at $93.7 million. Roughly $88 million of the cost went to CGI Federal and some say it is much more. A further $400 million is now being proposed to 'fix' the site.^[4]

Digital Trends:

It’s been one full week since the flagship technology portion of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) went live. And since that time, the befuddled beast that is Healthcare.gov has shutdown, crapped out, stalled, and mis-loaded so consistently that its track record for failure is challenged only by Congress.

The site itself, which apparently underwent major code renovations over the weekend, still rejects user logins, fails to load drop-down menus and other crucial components for users that successfully gain entrance, and otherwise prevents uninsured Americans in the 36 states it serves from purchasing healthcare at competitive rates – Healthcare.gov’s primary purpose. The site is so busted that, as of a couple days ago, the number of people that successfully purchased healthcare through it was in the “single digits,” according to the Washington Post.

According to White House visitor logs, CGI Federal Executives visited Obama Administration officials multiple times. They also attended a number of invitation-only addresses by President Obama. The Washington Examiner elaborates:

According to the logs, CGI Federal President Donna Ryan visited the White House six times prior to her company being selected to do the IT design work behind the high-profile website.

Two of the meetings attended by CGI executives were with Vivek Kundra, Obama's chief information officer. Kundra was a key figure in Obama administration information technology initiatives across the government.

Ryan met Kundra on June 21, 2010, in the latter's Old Executive Office Building office, according to the White House visitor logs.

In that meeting, Ryan was accompanied by three additional CGI executives, including George Schindler, who in January 2013 would be appointed president of CGI in the U.S. and Canada.

Also attending was Donna Morea, who oversaw the firm's U.S., European and Asian operations.

The day after Ryan met with Kundra, she was invited to attend an Obama speech touting the benefits of the Affordable Care Act and the need for a new "Patients' Bill of Rights.”

Earlier, on Jan. 7, 2010, Cheryl Campbell, another CGI executive who was deeply involved with the company’s health care contracts, attended a White House meeting with Kundra.

In 2009, Campbell was appointed senior vice president of CGI’s federal public sector health division. She was an early Obama supporter, giving $1,000 to his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton in June 2007.

Joining Campbell at the meeting was Andrew McLauchlin, a former CGI vice president, who was part of a company-government networking program called the “CGI Initiative for Collaborative Government.”

McLauchin was also an Obama financial supporter, giving $2,300 to the Obama Victory Fund and another $2,300 to Obama for America.

The relationship between McLauchin's Initiative and the U.S. federal government is incestuous in nature. At least six other former high-ranking federal officials, with long storied federal careers found a home at CGI Federal.

John Loonsk was a former director for health information technology at HHS, which awarded the Obamacare web project. He is now CGI’s chief medical officer, as well as a member of the initiative.

James Peake was secretary of veterans affairs under President George W. Bush and is now CGI's senior vice president for the health industry sector and an initiative member.