On Pentagon Solutions, plugs at the Defense Finance and Accounting Service are fake numbers employees use to fill holes in the books of the various parts of DoD. Reuters reports many parts of the Pentagon use plugs, the official name is unsubstantiated change actions, to make DFAS books balance with Treasury’s books. Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro, chief executive officer of the Punaro Group and a member of the Defense Business Board, has been following problems in DFAS for a long time. He says the news service isn’t the only organization with an eye on DFAS.

Success stories of agencies working with private sector partners include developing safety standards for the Internet that external stakeholders would be comfortable with. That interaction is sometimes delicate, sometimes outright shaky. As part of our special report, A New Era in Technology, Doug Maughan, director of the Cyber Security Division at the Science and Technology Directorate at the Homeland Security Department, says his agency is getting everyone involved.

The last remaining member of the first Chief Human Capital Officers Council can also boast one of the most diverse agencies in all of the federal government. Dr. Reginald Wells is the CHCO for the Social Security Administration and the guest for this week’s Agency of the Month. He told Federal News Radio’s Sean McCalley the start of the CHCO Council helped guide many of the workplace initiatives that are making SSA a model of workplace diversity.

Commercial best practices could help the Navy buy higher quality warships, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO says the Navy must be more proactive about when and how the Navy points out quality deficiencies with defense contractors. Congress asked GAO to conduct an investigation because of a recent string of warships with quality issues.

The first major software publisher in the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative is Microsoft. The General Services Administration released a task order today to create a contract from which all agencies can buy software and services. Federal News Radio’s executive editor Jason Miller shares details of GSA’s plans.