Digital Government
Gains, losses alter benefits of disabled
A federal employee who retires with a disability may seek to reduce his reported earnings in order to continue receiving benefit payments. But a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit should serve as a warning that retirees cannot reduce gains from one type of employment
Digital Government
GAO says Interior faces possible Y2K meltdown
The Interior Department, one of the least information technologyintensive federal agencies, faces a potentially crippling Year 2000 problem that could prevent it from managing millions of acres of land, according to the General Accounting Office. 'The department's core business process could fail
Digital Government
INS awards $400M pact to SAIC
The Immigration and Naturalization Service on Friday awarded a $400 million contract to Science Applications International Corp. to oversee the continued development of the agency's farflung information systems. Under the contract the first of five to spin out of the agency's $1.2 billion Servic
Digital Government
Industry Watch
DOD buys from Dakota Imaging The Defense Department plans to spend up to $60 million for imaging systems from Dakota Imaging Inc., Columbia, Md. Under a contract signed April 24 with Dulles Networking Associates, Dulles, Va., DOD may buy up to 200 installations of Dakota's Transform software for di
Digital Government
Group submits draft policies on e-mail use
An interagency working group last month released draft policies aimed at encouraging agencies to reduce the size and to determine the appropriate use of email messages. The Federal Email Postmasters Council (Fedpost), which was formed by the Chief Information Officers Council's Interoperability C
Digital Government
GAO report hits DOD Y2K efforts
The General Accounting Office last week warned that the failure of at least some Defense Department missioncritical systems and the operations they support is 'almost certain' unless DOD takes corrective action in its Year 2000 program soon. In a report released late last week, GAO officials said
Digital Government
Navy consolidates human resources systems with PeopleSoft
The Navy has selected software from PeopleSoft Inc. to manage human resources information for more than 800,000 retired, active and reserve sailors. Under the $7.4 million contract, PeopleSoft's human resources software will be deployed throughout the Navy at more than 800 locations, including shor
Digital Government
Feds say vendors are stonewalling requests for compliance info
Federal agency efforts to obtain information from telecommunications vendors on whether equipment is Year 2000compliant have been hindered by the reluctance of industry to share information, sources at a federal government conference said last week. Bill Nichols, the Year 2000 telecommunications p
Digital Government
Clinton signs bill giving agencies Year 2000 money
President Clinton on May 1 signed a supplemental appropriations bill that will earmark close to $86 million for some agencies to pay for Year 2000 fixes in this fiscal year. The 1998 Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Act will set aside $40.8 million for the Treasury Department and the Int
Digital Government
Set-Asides
GAO denies EIA protest The General Accounting Office has denied a protest against the Energy Information Administration by McNeil Technologies Inc. The company had charged that it should have been awarded a contract as part of the $75 million EIA Omnibus Procurement, which is a package of contracts
Digital Government
FBI taps Harris for mobile radios
The FBI this month awarded an estimated $105 million contract to Harris Corp. to supply federal agents with mobile radios so that they can share data such as digital fingerprints and criminal records with one another and with other agencies. The award comes as the FBI and other law enforcement agen
Digital Government
3 agencies doubt they can meet Y2K deadlines
A group of inspectors general from several federal agencies last month told Congress that their agencies are seriously behind in efforts to fix computer systems so that they can properly process dates after Dec. 31, 1999, which could threaten to disrupt large government programs. The officials told
Digital Government
System to speed victims' disaster aid
The Federal Emergency Management Agency this month plans to roll out a new system that will speed up the process of issuing grants and other types of assistance to victims during a disaster.
Digital Government
GAO gives Y2K council advice
The recently formed President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion is not receiving enough information to make informed decisions on how well federal agencies are managing the Year 2000 progress, according to a General Accounting Office report that was released last week.
Digital Government
Drag FMS schedule into the '90s
As the House Government Management, Information and Technology Subcommittee begins the messy task of sifting through agencies' mistakeriddled audit reports, it is abundantly clear that procurement reform has left untouched one of the most critical management concerns for every agency: the acquisit
Digital Government
Fed Data building on acquisition spree
Few companies in the federal information technology market beat Federal Data Corp. at the acquisition game. In a little more than a year, the Bethesda, Md.based systems integrator quietly has acquired five companies and a division of a sixth, growing to 2,000 employees and annual revenue between $
Digital Government
IDIQs must work for everyone
Contracting shops across government should pay attention to how the Air Force's Desktop V contract was transformed in less than two years from hot commodity to hot potato. Desktop V, the latest iteration of the Defense Department's flagship PC procurement vehicle, apparently has delivered lackl
Digital Government
12 agencies piloting VeriSign's PKI products
VeriSign Inc. has garnered 12 agency customers for its publickey infrastructure (PKI) products as the federal government moves to experiment with the technology needed to secure electronic commerce and public access to internal networks. The agencies nine civilian and three military are using
Digital Government
Bay's switch 'tunnels' over Internet
Bay Networks Inc. this week will introduce an extranet switch that gives smaller agencies a less expensive alternative to more traditional remoteaccess equipment and dialup services. Bay's Extranet Switch 1000 connects remote users to an organization's internal intranet over the public Internet.
Digital Government