ypsites - 6:14 am on Apr 2, 2005 (gmt 0)

First of all ... how frustrating! Definitely feel your pain ....

Regarding what to do, I agree with incredibill -- you should probably walk away from this business -- and would only add that you should be as polite and professional about it as possible. You don't have a bad relationship with the boss and others at the organization at this point (only with your contact), and there's no need to burn bridges with them. At the meeting where the boss is present, you could simply explain that you only allocated the original 4 months for the project; that you have other obligations; that you'd like to finish it over the next two weeks if possible, but if not could prepare a transition document for a new developer, etc.

The other thing is, your contact and/or the boss may attempt to "right the ship" at the meeting; if that happens, and you want to try to finish the job, be sure to set very clear limits on how much more time you can put in and very clear requirements for what you need from the organization to finish the job.

BTW, I don't agree at all with the suggestion that you plan on repeatedly going over your contact's head ("copy the boss on everything," etc); I think that is likely to just backfire on you, as the boss almost certainly doesn't want to deal with this kind of conflict on an ongoing basis. You have to figure it's quite likely that either the boss supports the subordinate, in which case you will have no credibility (and appear to be whining/tattling -- instead of focusing on the project), or the boss finds the subordinate as aggravating as you do but has to live with it (quite likely since it's a govt org), in which case you'll just be compounding the aggravation.

So ... I say either cut the cord as politely as possible now, or use the meeting as an opportunity to set very clear specs for completing the project (and stick to them).