Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenas Jeff Neely, PBS region 9 commissioner, to appear. Along with Neely, PBS Deputy Commissioner David Foley and former Administrator Martha Johnson are on the witness list. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee also is expected to hear from GSA Deputy Administrator Susan Brita, CFO Alison Doone and event planner Lisa Daniels.
GSA, NIST to name the first batch of outside organizations who will test and validate commercial cloud products against baseline security standards in the FedRAMP cloud security program in May. The Joint Authorization Board also will release guidance to industry on how to implement the security requirements in the coming months. FedRAMP still is months from approving its first set of vendors.
Government workers are under orders to blow the whistle if they spot waste, fraud or abuse. But, for many, that is easier said than done. What if the crook or clown is your immediate boss? Or your agency head? So who guards the guards?
Current and former officials at the General Services Administration will face a gauntlet of congressional hearings this week, following reports of excessive spending on a 2010 regional training conference and other programs. In an interview on In Depth with Francis Rose, former Virginia Congressman and Chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tom Davis shared his insights and what to look for during the hearings.
Congressman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has broadened the scope of Congress' probe into the GSA conference scandal, requesting a list of all overnight conferences attended by more than 50 employees at 23 federal agencies and departments.
Internal emails from the General Services Administration show high-level agency officials were aware of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view. And as early as last summer, officials disagreed over how to reprimand the employees responsible for excessive spending at a 2010 regional training conference.
VA will award a contract for human resources services to a private sector cloud provider later this year. GSA still is in the planning stages, while the Coast Guard is refreshing its HR system that has been in a private cloud since 2003. OMB listed HR systems as a possible function to move to a shared service provider in 2012.
In 2008, Congress mandated the Pentagon to keep an inventory of service contracts and review it annually to make sure government work wasn't being improperly outsourced. But the Government Accountability Office, in a recent report, found a lack of guidance from the top has led to challenges in implementing that requirement.
BCA does not specify how those cuts would be implemented. One interpretation is every program is cut by the same amount, which would be by about 13 percent. The other interpretation of the act is the overall spending would have to be reduced by 13 percent and the Pentagon could pick and choose the programs to cut, said Kevin Brancato, a defense analyst for Bloomberg Government.
Allan Roth of CBS MoneyWatch and Federal Times reporters Andy Medici and Steve Losey join host Mike Causey on today's program. April 11, 2012
The Hacker group Anonymous appears to be planning attacks on companies and elected officials that support certain cybersecurity legislation. So far, hackers have claimed credit for taking down the websites of Boeing, TechAmerica and USTelecom over the past few days.
In a letter to employees, Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini and IG Brian Miller asked employees to be more vigilant to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. They said one of the most troubling aspects of the PBS conference incident was no one reported it or took action to stop it.
Douglas Packard comes to the job from the Army's Mission and Installation Contracting Command in Fort Eustis, Va.
The Special Forces Command gave Harris Corporation an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity award worth a potential $400 million. Special Forces will buy multi-band, multi-mission radios over a five-year period.
Members of Congress and media watchdogs are thoroughly outraged over GSA's meltdown in the Nevada desert. But those guardians of public morality and safety are also delighted at the foul-up, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And we love those YouTube videos too.