Thank you. I wanted this to be official because that too is a part of this whole saga.
Now that Mr. Ferguson has been giving us his reports on Phoenix since last fall, one of the things that strikes me the most is the lack of logic in having dismissed or laid off almost 800 compensation experts in all of the departments of the government apparatus before the new system was even tested, and before we knew if it would perform effectively. We lost an extraordinary source of expertise and knowledge about the system when these individuals were dismissed or invited to retire. This is beyond me. How did this come to pass?
If my figures are correct, the cost of the project went from $155 million to $274 million, which is an enormous overrun. Were those compensation experts dismissed because of the need to control this increase in the cost of the project?