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IRS Commissioner John Koskinen told members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government that budget and staffing reductions are impacting the agency's core missions of customer service and tax collection. The agency projects it will only be able to answer 61 percent of phone calls this year, meaning some 20 million phone calls will go unanswered. Meanwhile, taxpayers attempting to reach IRS offices are facing wait times that stretch past 20 minutes.
Some HR practitioners say the process of identifying some goals, setting multiple levels of achievement, then judging employee performance annually is a best practice. That may be true, but that doesn't mean it is a good practice.
The three military department's top acquisition officials say they are each undergoing examinations of their contract spending on services. The goal is to ensure that the current, highly-decentralized service contracting process is serving valid military missions.
The Pentagon is implementing most of the recommendations it made in 2010's Section 804 report to Congress. Katrina McFarland, DoD's assistant secretary for acquisition, said initial results of the change are promising. But an upcoming GAO report is expected to show DoD has a long way to go to move toward an agile, incremental approach to IT systems development.
The Senate subcommittee with oversight of the federal workforce will take up the issue of federal-employee compensation and sinking employee morale. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), the subcommittee chairman, said at the National Treasury Employees Union's annual legislative conference that the hearing would focus, in part, on making sure federal pay stays competitive with the private sector.
In times of constrained budgets, agencies are cutting and consolidating services to save money and resources. Could it be the key to transforming government? A new report looks at what three agencies are doing right.
Federal Times writers Andy Medici and Sean Reilly and NARFE legislative director Jessica Klement will talk about some of the issues affecting feds in 2014. February 26, 2014
In his first appearance before House overseers, Jeh Johnson, the DHS secretary, said employee morale is among his top priorities, but didn't say how he would address it. Johnson said he's working to fill top leadership positions on a permanent basis. DHS has a vacancy rate at top positions of 38 percent.
The chairman of the Small Business Committee plans to introduce two bills today. One will increase the governmentwide small business prime contracting goal to 25 percent from 23 percent. The other focuses on contract bundling and data transparency.
Defense Department officials said reducing and realigning bases and depots will help them achieve more savings that can be put toward readiness. Acting Defense Deputy Secretary Christine Fox said this round of BRAC would be different than in 2005.
Jon Etherton, president of Etherton and Associates, Inc., will discuss whether Congress will pass acquisition reform this year. February 25, 2014
Just a day after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed reductions in military end-strength and shrinking compensation costs as part of next year's budget plan, a slate of nominees to lead key offices at the Pentagon faced congressional scrutiny.
The Pentagon says its spending plan acknowledges defense spending is on a downward trajectory, and reduces force structure in order to balance other priorities such as readiness. If sequestration stays in place, the calculus will change, Defense officials say.
Rep. Jeff Duncan releases a discussion draft of a bill to add more discipline and oversight to the Homeland Security Department's acquisition process.