The Office of Management and Budget is getting kudos for its initial steps to implement the Federal Information Technology Reform Act (FITARA).

Not only has OMB begun discussions with federal CIOs — as reported in this column about a month ago — but several sources confirmed officials from the Office of Electronic Government and IT are on a listening tour of sorts with former federal IT and other CXO community officials.

Several sources confirmed OMB reached out to the Partnership for Public Service’s CIO SAGE community for a series of conversations, including one in the last week or so that included not only former CIOs, but former CFOs and chief human capital officers.

Several participants, who requested anonymity, said the conversations are focused on how best to implement the new CIO authorities outlined in the law.

One participant said OMB is intent on making sure FITARA avoids the mistakes made with the Clinger-Cohen Act implementation.

With that 1996 law, many CIOs were placed too far down in the organization to have the intended impact lawmakers hoped they could have in how the government manages and buys technology.

FITARA, in some respects, is a recognition that agencies failed to meet the spirit and intent of the Clinger-Cohen Act, and it was time to modernize CIO authorities and responsibilities.

Sources say the most important thing isn’t just to give CIOs new authorities, but how to ensure those mandates translate into improving how the agency delivers on its mission.

Along with talking to former federal IT executives, OMB on Feb. 2 issued a “management alert” to agencies about FITARA, telling them to be prepared for governmentwide guidance.

That guidance is expected in spring 2015, according to a presentation by Ben Sweezy, the E-Gov Strategy lead, at the Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board meeting on Friday in Washington.

The presentation said based on the law, OMB’s guidance will ensure that:

• Each CIO certify that IT investments are adequately implementing incremental development;
• Each CIO approve the IT budget request, including the reprogramming of funds;
• CIOs must review and approve any contract or other agreement for IT or IT services that are considered major investments. For non-major IT investments, agencies may delegate this approval to an individual who reports directly to the CIO. The only exception is for major IT investments is if the agency uses a governance process to approve contracts and the CIO is a full participant in that group.
• CIOs shall approve the appointment of any other employee with the title of CIO, or who functions in the capacity of a CIO, for any component organization within the covered agency;
• The secretary or executive of each non-DoD agency shall ensure that the CIO of the agency has a significant role in the decision processes for all annual and multi-year planning, programming, budgeting, and execution decisions, related reporting requirements, and reports related to IT; and the management, governance and oversight processes related to IT;

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The key to FITARA’s success is both OMB’s initial actions and Congressional oversight.

At least one of the bill’s main authors, Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), said he will be paying close attention.

“With respect to new management reform laws, the implementation phase marks the beginning of an even more difficult period where congressional oversight can make the critical difference in determining whether a new law is ultimately effective at achieving its goals, or misses the mark. For example, it has often been observed that the key weakness of Clinger-Cohen was not imbedded in the statute itself — as the act established a very strong IT management framework that FITARA was able to modernize and enhance — but rather, was found in the lack of rigorous oversight that resulted from the authors of the law either retiring or leaving the Congress,” Connolly said in a statement. “In the 114th Congress, my first Federal IT priority will be ensuring that FITARA is faithfully and fully implemented. Specifically, my oversight agenda, which I am hopeful will remain bipartisan in nature with support from Chairman [Jason] Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Ranking Member [Elijah] Cummings, along with the new Government Operations Subcommittee Chairman [Mark] Meadows, will be comprehensive and focus on two fronts. First, we must ensure that OMB, with support from the Federal CIO Council, develops high quality implementation guidance with feedback from a broad diverse array of stakeholders. Second, I plan on conducting FITARA implementation oversight on an agency-by-agency basis to ensure that every agency head is held accountable for establishing ownership over comprehensive, detailed implementation plans and policies for his or her given agency.”

Connolly said he expects agencies to have concrete implementation plans where specific individuals have clearly defined roles, and how they plan to evaluate and select department CIOs, which are presidential appointees and elevate that person into their newly established roles.

At the recent Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the Government Accountability Office’s biennial High Risk list, U.S. Comptroller Gene Dodaro said one of the reasons why GAO added IT acquisition to the list this year is make sure FITARA is implemented effectively.

“It gives us and Congress to hold people accountable over time,” Dodaro said. “The basic problem I’ve seen over the years is there’s a lack of discipline to follow good practices. We get off the rails and no one is held accountable.”

Connolly said the committee will hold oversight hearings of FITARA in the coming year.

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