Management

  • Proponents of government-wide acquisition contracts (GWACs) say agencies are starting to understand their value. They are optimistic even though less than 15 percent of all federal IT spending goes through GWACs now. Rob Coen, acting director of NIH's Information Technology Acquisition and Assessment Center, spoke with Federal Drive host Emily Kopp about the GWAC programs NIH manages. Kopp caught up with Coen at the recent Acquisition Excellence Conference.

    March 26, 2014
  • The most expensive defense program ever, the F-35 fighter plane, is running into more problems. The Government Accountability Office says software delays could force the Marine Corps to push back its roll out scheduled for next year. What's more, the auditors say the Defense Department will have to spend more than $12 billion annually on the program for the next 22 years. For more on the future of the F-35 program, Federal Drive host Emily Kopp spoke to Rob Levinson, a senior defense analyst for Bloomberg Government. Read our related story.

    March 26, 2014
  • A new Government Accountability report finds that the DoD will have to spend $12 billion annually over the next 22 years on the F-35 program. Rob Levinson, Bloomberg Government senior defense analyst, explains the impact.

    March 26, 2014
  • Rob Carey, the principal deputy CIO at the Defense Department, will retire after 31 years in government. He is at least the seventh high level and long-time federal technology official to leave government in the last six months.

    March 26, 2014
  • The Army says it is now replacing funds in its readiness accounts that were depleted when cuts under sequestration first kicked in a year ago. But last year's readiness problems are likely to repeat in 2016 and beyond if Congress allows the automatic Defense cuts in current law to persist.

    March 26, 2014
  • Dave Gwyn and Chris Howard from Nutanix will discuss how their company can help you design and manage your agency's data centers. March 25, 2014

    March 25, 2014
  • Carolyn Alston, executive vice president and general counsel for the Coalition for Government Procurement will talk about the top procurement issues in the federal market. March 25, 2014

    March 25, 2014
  • Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the oversight committee, and John Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, want OMB to provide data to the committee on excess federal properties valued at $50 million or more. The committee has been seeking this information for more than two years, "yet these requests have consistently gone unfulfilled," Issa and Mica wrote in a March 24 letter to OMB Director Sylvia Burwell.

    March 25, 2014
  • The hallways of a building at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling echoed with the sounds of gunfire last month as part of a training exercise to help base law enforcement personnel prepare for an active-shooter event.

    March 25, 2014
  • Barry West, the chief information officer of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, outlined five strategic goals, including cybersecurity, cloud computing and mobility, in a new IT strategic plan.

    March 25, 2014
  • Jim Phillips, executive vice president of Centre Consulting, will discuss various contracting issues with host Mark Amtower. March 24, 2014

    March 24, 2014
  • If you ask the Defense Department, its acquisition process for missile defense is a glass half full. The Government Accountability Office says that might be an overly optimistic way of looking at it. Cristina Chaplain, director of acquisition and sourcing management issues at the Government Accountability Office, talks to In Depth with Francis Rose about a new GAO report.

    March 24, 2014
  • Horace Blackman, a long-time Veterans Affairs IT executive, also leaves for the private sector, joining Lockheed Martin.

    March 24, 2014
  • The Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy is preparing for a special commencement ceremony this fall. About two dozen veterans will graduate from its Warriors to Workforce Program. Program Manager David Sella spoke with Federal Drive host Tom Temin about how the program works and how the agency plans to expand it. Tom caught up with Sella at the 2014 Acquisition Excellence Conference. View photos and listen to more interviews from the conference.

    March 24, 2014