People

Agarwal tapped to lead California's new tech department

P.K. Agarwal has been vice president of Affiliated Computer Services since 2003, but he has served as a California state official for many years.

People

Feds enroll in institute to keep up-to-date

Not everything a chief information officer needs to know can be learned on the job. Some CIOs say they have to step away from their day-to-day responsibilities to gain a broader perspective and see what lies ahead.

People

Blum gets competitive OMB post

Federal competitive sourcing initiative manager Mathew Blum will become OMB's new associate administrator for competitive sourcing.

People

Ciber gets aerospace contract

The consulting firm will help a NASA center develop a curriculum for its engineers.

People

Bill would give feds e-health records

A second forthcoming bill would set into law the government's national health IT coordinator and set milestones for federal agencies’ work to advance health IT.

Modernization

A laptop for every student

Massachusetts considers providing every middle and high school student with a laptop -- at a cost of about $54 million.

People

OMB to add internal controls requirements to PMA scorecard

The Office of Management and Budget will add implementation of milestones for tighter internal controls to federal agencies’ ratings for the President’s Management Agenda scorecard during fiscal 2006. <@SM>

People

Bonner to retire from Customs and Border Protection

As former customs commissioner, Robert Bonner oversaw the merger of three agencies and 42,000 employees into the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

People

Senate looks for lessons from alternative pay systems

Senator says lawmakers and agency managers should study how alternative systems are working before changing to unproved systems.

People

USAJobs Web site attracts record traffic

Office of Personnel Management officials attribute the sharp increase in visitors partly to new search features and other technical improvements.

People

Miller: More valuable than ever

CIOs have been elevated to a critical security role since Sept. 11, 2001.

People

Administration aims to get HR, financial centers on track

The Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Management and Budget expect by the end of the year to answer some of the biggest questions surrounding the Lines of Business Consolidation initiatives.

People

Princeton study says federal careerists make better managers

The author of the study concludes that presidents are willing to trade management competence to secure ideological loyalty.

People

Auditors find gaping holes in EPA IT procedures

The Environmental Protection Agency is losing millions of dollars by not monitoring its IT systems, according to an inspector general report.

People

Hobbins up for his fourth star

The Air Force’s senior IT official has been nominated for commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe.

People

Plunkett: Crafting metrics not too difficult

Expert says a unified theory of performance management is necessary.

Modernization

Study calls for Vermont to embrace IT

The Vermont Institute on Government Effectiveness released a study detailing how the state could save up to $30 million a year by improving its IT infrastructure.

People

E-training companies go after federal market

A recently announced partnership between Macromedia and Plateau Systems illustrates the growing demand for e-learning technologies in government agencies.

People

NASA bungles e-mail policy

Directive wrongly implied that employees should not answer public inquiries

People

FBI focuses on IT capabilities

FBI officials are counting on the bureau's new Office of Information Technology Policy and Planning (OIPP) to tame the sort of undisciplined IT spending that led the FBI to abandon its $170 million Virtual Case File system earlier this year.