News briefs

OPM drafts IT pay raises

The Office of Personnel Management released details Dec. 1 on how much

of a pay increase certain federal information technology workers will receive

next year. OPM issued a draft salary table (www.opm.gov/oca/01tables/SSR)

for computer specialists, computer engineers and computer science specialists

in the GS-5 through GS-12 grades. The table lays out for the first time

the actual dollar amounts that these IT workers will receive starting Jan.

1.

EDGAR gets stress test

The Securities and Exchange Commission will give its Electronic Data

Gathering Analysis and Retrieval system a stress test in January. The 16-year-old

EDGAR database has been upgraded from a dial-up, text-based system to an

HTML-based system. The SEC will bombard EDGAR with filings to prove that

it can withstand the strain of queries by tens of thousands of publicly

traded companies.

Spawar commander to retire

Rear Adm. John Gauss, the commander of the Navy's Space and Naval Warfare

Systems Command in San Diego, said he has spoken with senior service officials

about retiring by the summer of 2001. Gauss championed Information Technology

for the 21st Century, an aggressive shipboard systems modernization program.

Rear Adm. Kenneth Slaght, the vice commander for Spawar, is Gauss' most

likely replacement.

Customs countdown

The U.S. Customs Service expects to seek a prime contractor within the

next six months for its $1.4 billion modernization program, said Woody Hall,

chief information officer, Nov. 30. Although Congress has approved $124

million to get the project going, Hall said the delay in funding earlier

this year would push back completion of the project at U.S. ports of entry

until 2006 or later.