Management
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services claims its Fraud Prevention System did its job last year, saving $454 million in improper and fraudulent payments to medical providers. But the Inspector General at Health and Human Services, CMS' parent department, isn't so sure. It says a more realistic estimate is about one third of that, or closer to $133 million. Richard Navarro is the audit manager in Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General. He joined Tom Temin on the Federal Drive to explain this discrepancy.
July 23, 2015 -
The Department of Veterans Affairs will have to shutter some facilities beginning in August if Congress does not approve an emergency reallocation of funds, officials said Wednesday. Congressional overseers are displeased, saying they were blindsided by VA’s budget emergency.
July 23, 2015 -
Something as big and as shocking as the OPM data breach can be a credibility killer for any organization. Even so, former Homeland Security HR executive Jeff Neal says he's been surprised by the number of people saying OPM should be shut down and have its mission transferred to other agencies.
July 23, 2015 -
A bipartisan group of six senators introduced the Federal Information Security Management Reform Act of 2015 to give DHS the clout it’s been lacking over the last five years and, in some respects, put it on par with the National Security Agency.
July 23, 2015 -
Small business success for the federal government in the latest contracting numbers as the government as a whole hits its small business contracting goal. The government also hit some other goals in minority contracting. Joe Jordan is CEO of FedBid, and former administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that he likes what he sees in the latest numbers.
July 22, 2015 -
Postal Service employees know the effects of a major cyber breach all too well. Hackers stole personally identifiable information for more than 800,000 employees back in November 2014. But the USPS Inspector General said the agency from the top to bottom wasn't prepared for the attack. Aron Alexander is the IT audit director in the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Postal Service. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that the agency doesn't have the staffing and the resources to handle cybersecurity functions.
July 22, 2015 -
Veterans Affairs officials tell Congress today that they will have to begin a partial shutdown of the department unless Congress reallocates money into VA’s medical services accounts by next week. Federal News Radio’s Jared Serbu reports, the shutdown would impact virtually every VA medical center in the country.
July 22, 2015 -
Jointness is all over the new National Military Strategy. Outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey describes how each armed service will contribute equally to national security. Jim Holmes is a professor of strategy at the US Naval War College. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that he has little sense of what the U.S. maritime strategy will look like and how it function with land and air forces.
July 22, 2015 -
A new report from the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology cites OPM's scattered IT governance, lack of cybersecurity experts and lack of cyber threat detection technology as the major pitfalls leading to OPM's cyber breach. The Federal Drive's Tom Temin spoke with Dan Waddell, a lead contributor on the study, about what OPM needs to do to secure its systems for the future.
July 22, 2015 -
A new report released by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office states that the DEA’s policies regarding use of high-risk confidential sources are out of compliance with the Attorney General’s guidelines. The IG says a lack of oversight for issues such as how sources are used, how actions in operations are sanctioned, and how benefits to sources are awarded could put operations at risk.
July 22, 2015 -
A Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month states the Office of Personnel Management isn't properly communicating employee engagement strategies with other agencies.
July 22, 2015 -
Bloomberg Government\'s Brian Friel and Cameron Leuthy join host Roger Waldron to discuss the current federal budget landscape, and provide an overview of multiple award contracts across government. July 21, 2015
July 21, 2015 -
Senate leaders agreed in principle to a six-year highway transportation fund bill that doesn’t try to raise money by changing the way the interest rate on the G-Fund is calculated. But Democrats stopped the bill from moving to a full vote because they wanted more time to read the entire bill.
July 21, 2015 -
The Senate is working on a long-term highway spending bill that taps billions of dollars from the Thrift Savings Plan to help pay for it. House budget writers say the G-fund is just too good of a deal and they want to base the fund's interest rate on a three month average instead of the current four-year average. Kim Weaver of the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says that would make the G-fund virtually worthless for TSP participants. Jessica Klement is legislative director of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association. She tells In Depth with Francis Rose that NARFE wants Congress to come up with another solution.
July 21, 2015 -
The Office of Personnel Management is turning to the Homeland Security Department to help it set the standard for better federal cybersecurity. OPM is still recovery mode as it deals with the consequences of the biggest breach of federal employee data in history. Chris Cummiskey is the CEO of Cummiskey Strategic Solutions, a senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University and former acting undersecretary for management at DHS. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose that says DHS has five big items to tackle before it can — and should — lead the effort.
July 21, 2015