I'm not sure about the facts revolving around this - to whether or not the amount spent was budgeted, or if it was "worth it", or even regarding the kick backs that were described.  But being in IT and involved with many companies that do T&A implementations and even ERP implementations, 10% over cost is a _very good_ implementation of a product.

You'll never see a company go below budget (very rare), and generally speaking around 40% of implementations will end around 20 - 30% over budget because of scope changes, technology/platform challenges, and even political derailment.

I fail to see where the statement "sounds like the exact opposite to us"...who is "us"?  Is "us" educated in implementations and the architecture of an implementation, from A to Z?

I may not know the facts behind the spending, whether it was required, or even if it was inflated and illegal activities did occur, but the fact of the matter remains, a $68 million overage on a $700 million project is a "good job" when it comes to budget control with a T&A (Time and Attendance) or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning - accounting system).

I'm sure more will come into light - if the project were say to be 340 million in total cost all all other amounts are illegal - then yes, you're right regarding the statement.  If it's even at 15% over - you're still beating the law of averages.

10% overage?  No....  1010% overage.

68M was the estimated *total*, not the overage.

Was this project even necessary?

Bloomberg = one of the greediest, most manipulative and ruthless con artists to ever surface in New York.  What irks me about Bloomscum is that he walks around with his head up so high as if the personal fortune and empire he has built are all results from his personal talent and hard work, when they're mostly from simple brutish thievery and manipulation.

Mayor Bloomberg said on his weekly radio program that "we actually did a pretty good job here, in retrospect."
Wow. Delusion knows no bounds. 
Either that or he thinks he's the greatest con artist since P.T. Barnum. 
[edit and after a think... ] perhaps he thinks he is the second coming...

Of course he did, he made a lot of his rich buddies rich. He considers that a pretty good job.

I am completely agree with Bernie here, and anyone would like to tell what else he has done beside it?

It should be noted that $700 million was the approximate cost of installing automatic fare collection the MTA in the early 1990s.  Equipment for almost 500 stations, 6000 buses, plus station gates, power upgrades, support systems and more.  Either the MTA got a very good deal, or CityTime is a complete fraud.

And according to today's inflation, it would have been $1,204,546,289 for $700 million in the 90's (approx).

While I agree that the $700 million seems exceptionally high, if I look at ERP implementations for some sites that we have experience with...

400 users - total cost - $2 million.  Cost per user = $5,000

So...at $700 million for ERP, you'd expect around 140,000 users.  This includes functionality from basic accounting, all the way to high-end manufacturing.

Payroll systems are one of the most complex to implement and manage - mainly because of the tax authorities and the maintenance of all the other types of transactions in the system.  A T&A system (Time and Attendance) generally integrates with the Payroll system to generate data for a Payroll system.  The going rate for these systems ranges from $35 / employee to around $150 / employee.

For 700 million...
Low-end system (generally not web based): 20,000,000 users
High-end system (web-based, Job integration): 4,666,665 users

So...how many end users are expected to use this system?  From there reverse the calculation to get your cost per employee.  Purchase something like this from Microsoft at $150 and then create your own solution (as there are no real direct web based offerings), and you could even hit around $400 / employee depending upon technology, features, and integration.

Food for thought - as I stated in one of my previous posts, I have no knowledge as to the implementation, but I am curious as to the number of users on this system to really find any factual information regarding project failure.

Of course, not including any illegal activities - it's downright scary that someone would even consider kickbacks in such a potentially illegal manner...I've heard of retainers that are paid after the project goes live (and generally EVEN IF IT'S OVER BUDGET), but past that, I'm not sure...

Bloomberg L.P. would have cleaned house if any projects ran over budget by 50%. CityTime is over budget by over 1,000%.  I call bullshit to Mayor Bloomberg's claim.

The difference is when he's spending his money, versus our money