I love my governor, he is so generous to provide such an endless flow of entertainment. Will voters remember this come November?

Sacramento Bee, April 17, 2002: Audit slams Oracle pact

Database software deal could cost state $41 million more.

Naive state officials signed an unprecedented $95 million software contract with Oracle Corp. despite little need for the software and claims of savings that turned out to be wildly overblown, state Auditor Elaine Howle said in a scathing report released Tuesday.

Instead of saving $16 million, the state could spend as much as $41 million more on the database software than it would have without the six-year licensing agreement.

A company that helped sell the state on the deal, Logicon Inc., stands to pocket $28 million -- a fact apparently unknown to the state officials who brokered it, the audit says.

Sacramento Bee, April 23, 2002: Technology agency's days are numbered

A lawmaker pulls a bill's provision that would have kept the department alive.

The state Department of Information Technology, under fire from lawmakers and others for its role in a controversial software contract with the Oracle Corp., will likely take its last breath July 1.

Assemblyman Manny Díaz, D-San Jose, announced Monday that he was withdrawing a provision in a bill that would have allowed the department to continue beyond its sunset this summer.

Díaz had proposed keeping the department alive until the end of 2003 to see if it could be fixed.

But Díaz said Monday that a state audit of the Oracle contract, released last week, convinced him that the department should be allowed to die.

Sacramento Bee, April 25, 2002: Davis aides backed deal

A recent audit ripped the Oracle software pact as a costly error.

An audit released last week said the $95 million, six-year software licensing agreement could cost the state $41 million more than it would have spent without the deal. Despite a survey that showed limited demand in state offices, the agreement called for 270,000 database software licenses -- more than the number of state workers.

Oh, stop, my sides, ROFL! What will be even funnier is tomorrow's story wherein the gov says, "But it's not my fault! Remember, all those aircraft were coming to California!"