People

OMB seeks to improve value of internal controls reporting

The Office of Management and Budget will hold forums to figure out how to make controls for financial reporting more valuable to agencies.

People

Info-sharing czar touts U.S. progress

But Thomas McNamara says cultural and administrative challenges still impede getting government to better share homeland security, law enforcement and intelligence data.

People

Feds urge the next president to communicate

Good communication between Cabinet members and career civilian feds is crucial, members of a panel say.

People

Letter: Performance monitoring is critical for efficient government teleworking programs

In the private sector, if employees don't produce, they are canned. If the workforce doesn't produce, management gets canned or the company goes under. With feds there is no such accountability.

People

Letter: What are some telework guidelines?

My agency is using the excuse of positions not being "appropriate" for teleworking.

People

Cutter shows Deepwater progress, Coast Guard says

National Security Cutter Bertholf, part of the beleaguered modernization program, will undergo final testing soon.

People

Evans concerned about legislation to regulate data resellers

Conducting privacy impact assessments on data brokers’ proprietary databases could discourage companies from offering their services to assist federal agencies, the OMB official says.

People

Letter: Outsourcing is not always better or cheaper

It is a fallacy to think if you throw in 100 cheap(er) workers who have no subject-matter expertise against a new or legacy redeployed business application, they will be remotely successful in its creation.

People

Letter: Educating agency staff better than limiting award fees

The solution is to educate the agency staff on how to write an award fee determination plan, how to develop meaningful metrics, how to set performance standards and how to do the required monitoring.

People

United States, Germany will share biometric data

Officials signed an agreement today that will let the countries search each other's criminal fingerprint databases.

People

Lawmakers push telework as overall participation drops

Security concerns and lack of a uniform tracking system are to blame for telework participation drops, OPM says.

People

OMB simplifies federal spending portal guidance

Agencies will continue to be graded on data quality and completeness.

People

Cyber Storm II gets started

Although DHS' weeklong cyber war game focuses on response, one official says the relationships formed will also benefit prevention and preparedness efforts.

People

Canada border security measures for commerce

The goal is to better align Canada's trade partnership program with the DHS' Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, which offers preferential treatment to companies that agree to expanded federal oversight of their supply chains.

People

CIO Council starts wiki on architecture guidance

The draft of the "Practical Guide to Service-Oriented Architecture" is available for government and industry to comment on.

People

CORRECTION: Census still plans to fingerprint temp workers

An FCW report that the Census Bureau had asked OPM to waive background checks for 2010 Census counters was based on incorrect information. We apologize for the confusion.

People

CREW: White House misled court about missing e-mail

The group, which has sued the Bush administration over the alleged loss of millions of e-mail messages, wants a federal court to hold officials in civil contempt for a statement they gave the court in January.

People

Records managers see value of enterprise architecture

The IRS, NRC and Interior find success in developing records management systems by tying their business cases to their enterprise architectures.

People

Army reopens online library to public

A month after the service blocked Reimer Digital Library behind the Army Knowledge Online firewall, it has changed its mind.

People

OMB finalizes new statistical policy

The directive calls for the timely release of policy-neutral information.