Digital Government
Agencies given Y2K warning
The General Accounting Office reported last month that agencies face 'serious vulnerabilities' in their attempts to fix computers for the Year 2000 date problem and that the White House needs to do more to fix the systems in time. In its report, 'Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Potential for Widespread
Digital Government
Sun debuts midrange servers
Sun Microsystems Inc. has unveiled a new line of midrange servers that the company said will give federal users higher performance and availability features typically found only in mainframe systems. The new Enterprise servers including the 3500, 4500, 5500 and 6500 are designed to provide the
Digital Government
GTE demos encryption capability for cellular net
GTE Government Systems announced last month that it had successfully demonstrated the first use of a promising computer algorithm for national security over a commercial cellular network. The demonstration represents only one segment of a broad National Security Agency initiative known as 'Condor,'
Digital Government
FEDWIRE
AF lifts BPA moratorium Brig. Gen. Frank Anderson, deputy assistant secretary of contracting at the Air Force, this month sent a memo rescinding the service's suspension of blanket purchase agreements based on General Services Administration schedule contracts. The memo said Air Force employees sh
Digital Government
DISA OKs participation in GSA telecommunications solicitation
The Defense Department gave the General Services Administration the green light to list all of DOD's Washington, D.C., area locations as potential users of the Washington Interagency Telecommunications Service 2001 in the draft solicitation for the network issued late last week. Although the extent
Digital Government
When making appeals, meet deadlines, save proof
A federal employee who retires with a disability may seek to reduce his reported earnings in order to continue receiving benefit payments.
Digital Government
FCC backpedals on E-Rate management
The Federal Communications Commission last Friday proposed that Congress revamp the way the ERate and other federally subsidized telecommunications programs are administered.
Digital Government
Intercepts
Big Qwest/NSA deal? That's what my sources tell me is behind a press release issued by Qwest, a startup fiber network company headed by former AT&T superexec Joseph Nacchio. Qwest said last week it won a $430 million virtual private network deal from the U.S. government. Dean Wandry, head of new
Digital Government
NTIS looks for partner to develop PKI services
The Commerce Department's National Technical Information Service has begun a search for a joint venture partner to begin offering publickey services to government agencies much in the same way it offers World Wide Web services through FedWorld. NTIS last month requested proposals for partners that
Digital Government
Acquisition reform key to defense, Cohen says
Top Defense Department officials focused attention last week on acquisition reform, with Defense Secretary William Cohen saying that 'accelerating acquisition reform remains one of our most important priorities.' Cohen, in remarks kicking off DOD's third annual Acquisition Reform Week, which was be
Digital Government
GAO: C4I links imperil troops
Many of the Defense Department's computer systems that are used to coordinate command, control and intelligence information among the military services are incapable of sharing and exchanging data, an interoperability problem that could result in the possible 'loss of life, equipment or supplies' i
Digital Government
Time to put competition back in task-order contracts
The Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act gave us all a great victory by recognizing in a statute a new contract vehicle the multipleaward taskorder contract. FASA further helped by allowing the executive branch to establish simplified procedures for competing individual task orders or, as the
Digital Government
TRW lands contract to revamp DOD travel
The Defense Department moved a step closer to onestop electronic shopping for travel services with the award last week of a $263.7 million contract to TRW Inc. under the Defense Travel System program. DTS will replace an antiquated paperbased travel voucher process, which can take 25 steps to com
Digital Government
Eclectic career leads Garvey to direct EPA database
Although Pat Garvey has tried to leave government service for decades, he just cannot seem to stay away. Luck and his heart have led Garvey to a varied career in government service, from working as a state social worker to a General Accounting Office auditor, from studying for the priesthood to tra
Digital Government
Sybase aims to strengthen market position
Losses, layoffs and management restructuring have characterized the last several months at Sybase Inc., but the company hopes to reverse the flow of events with two new initiatives to augment its core database products and a commitment to focus on four core strengths. Sybase discussed the initiativ
Digital Government
VHA terminates COTS program
The Veterans Health Administration this month pulled the plug on a program that integrated commercially available products with an agencydeveloped system that manages patient information. VHA canceled the Hybrid Open Systems Technology (HOST) program, which it started in the early 1990s to give VH
Digital Government
Commerce kicks off plan to reduce IT worker shortage
In an effort to address the increasing shortage of information technology workers, the Commerce Department on Monday announced several outreach initiatives to help attract talent to the hightech industr
Digital Government
AMS invests heavily in the fed financial market
Paul Brands, chief executive officer of American Management Systems Inc., may have been preaching to the choir at a recent user conference when he emphasized the company's commitment to the federal government market. Brands was speaking to about 600 AMS government users who had gathered in Washingt
Digital Government
Agencies, 8(a)s now can negotiate pacts directly
In an effort to make contracting with socially and economically disadvantaged firms more competitive with schedule purchases and indefinitedelivery, indefinitequantity contracts, the Small Business Administration said last week it will stop acting as the middleman for agencies' 8(a) buys. Federal
Digital Government