Funny Bavaria

Today's entry has nothing to do with the grave issue of privacy and the politics thereof. I just wanted to share a discovery:

The Accounting Office of the state of Bavaria in its annual report 2004 has criticised the waste which comes from using no less than 16 different software systems for personnel administration throughout the state of Bavaria (in addition to -- hear hear! -- index card systems).

This in spite of the fact that since 1980 a unified system has been in development (by the Office of Statistics and Data Processing) which was meant to be used throughout the state. It was meant to be modern and encompassing, catering to all needs and so on. Its name is “Dialogorientiertes Personal- und Stellenverwaltungssystem” (dialogue-oriented personnel and job administration system) -- DIAPERS in short.

I hope someone gives them an English language dictionary for Christmas ;-)