Strike Two?

I'm picking up five-by-five signals - that's "loud and clear" in radio speak -- that the Veterans Affairs Department's $600 million financial and asset management system may never take wing.

Although VA, according to the Government Accountability Office () has already spent $90 million on the Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise program -- mostly for program management support -- I hear that top managers and some folks on the Hill would like to see the project go away.

If it does, this will be the second VA financial management program not able to get off the ground this decade. VA's first attempt at an integrated financial management system, the $472 million Core Financial and Logistics System, was killed after it failed miserably in its initial deployment at a VA hospital in Bay Pines, Fla.

Maybe VA should try a bite-sized approach to financial management, instead of trying to develop one humongous system.