The best of the best auditors across the federal government are claiming some recognition. The Association of Government Accountants recently awarded 20 federal agencies with its Certificate of Excellence in Accountability Reporting. The Labor Department was one of those agencies. Jim Taylor, chief financial officer at Labor, spoke with Francis about the good practices his agency employs that helped them win this award.

(The Federal Drive spoke with another CEAR winner — Steve Goss with SSA. Listen to that interview here.)

Hiring freezes and retention issues across government are starting to show. A group of HR experts exchanged ideas this week on how to creatively deal with those challenges. The event was put on by the Partnership for Public Service. Tim McManus, vice president for Education and Outreach at the Partnership, spoke with Francis about what came out of the workshop.

The private sector already knows the concept of a social contract. The communications and electrical industries have been perfecting them for years. But now, some are calling for a social contract for the cyber world. Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, is one of those people. He joined Francis to discuss the idea behind a cyber social contract.

(View a presentation by Clinton here. Click on “ISA Overview Presentations” and then “Presentation to AIA CIO Members.”)

Two high-level Defense budget documents are in the hands of Congress. They’re now looking at the fiscal 2014 overseas contingency operations request and the fiscal 2013 reprogramming request. Gordon Adams, professor of International Relations at the School of International Service for American University, spoke with Francis about the requests and what Congress is likely to do about them. Adams is also a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center and a former OMB Defense budget leader.