Digital Government

Tech Touted in Clearance Reform

The Office of Personnel Management has increased the efficiency in which the government completes security clearances, completing 90 percent of background investigations in an average of 37 days, the agency's director told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs federal workforce subcommittee on Tuesday. In 2005, the average time needed to obtain a Top Secret security clearance was in excess of one year, Berry said, while today it is only 72 days.

Digital Government

Navy could run two years late on business systems upgrade, GAO finds

Poor management controls are slowing the implementation of the Navy's Enterprise Resource Planning project and driving up costs, according to GAO.

People

The Facebook fan flap

Readers question the value of hoards of agency Facebook fans.

Digital Government

IT Leadership Awards

Consulting firm (ISC)2 on Tuesday announced the final nominees for its sixth annual Government Information Security Leadership Awards. The awards honor individuals who have significantly enhanced the information security workforce by demonstrating a leadership role in any information security workforce improvement initiative, program or project on either a government-wide or agency-specific basis. The program recognizes IT workers from each of the following categories:

Digital Government

Health IT panel approves intermediaries for data

Health and Human Services Department's Health IT Standards Committee has adopted a framework for the flow of patient data to be collected and aggregated to measure the quality of care.

Digital Government

Google readies government cloud offering

Google's government cloud offering will offer Google Apps in a dedicated environment within undisclosed Google facilities in the United States.

Cybersecurity

IG faults DHS for breaking rules on some noncompetitive contracts

DHS' Inspector General finds 70 examples where officials didn't follow federal acquisition rules in awarding noncompetitive contracts.

Cybersecurity

IG: DHS needs better management for OneNet

DHS needs better management for its project to consolidate its agencies' network infrastructures, the department's inspector general found.

People

Klossner: The secret of success in federal IT cartooning

In the 13-plus years I have been drawing cartoons for FCW, I have often needed a high learning curve on cartoon topics, writes John Klossner.

Digital Government

Get a Life!: Be thankful the fiscal year ends in September

The race to award contracts and close the books as the fiscal year winds down is a government tradition -- but the September 30 date is fairly recent.