David Powner

  • The FITARA implementation scorecard released last week by the House Oversight and Government Reform committee that shows agencies failing efforts to improve IT acquisition and operations — turned government watchers into upset parent's — asking their children why they are getting D's and F's. David Powner, director of information technology management issues at the Government Accountability Office, filled in Federal Drive with Tom Temin on the gaps in learning and a study guide for agencies to improve their FITARA grade point average.

    November 09, 2015
  • The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act scorecard and the governmentwide average is a “D.” Lawmakers and OMB expect agency scores to improve across the four metrics.

    November 05, 2015
  • The Office of Management and Budget is using a "cut and reinvest" process to reach its goal of saving money on information technology. But the reinvest portion is still up in the air. David Powner is the director of Information Technology Management Issues at the Government Accountability Office. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose how agencies follow their spending and track their savings.

    September 22, 2015
  • Agencies are under an Aug. 15 deadline to describe how they’ll implement the a key part of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act. As part of a forthcoming FITARA dashboard, OMB wants to broadcast those plans as widely as possible.

    August 12, 2015
  • In the final policy to implement Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA), federal CIO Tony Scott detailed several steps to ensure agencies meet the spirit and intent of the law. Meanwhile, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members promise not to make FITARA Clinger-Cohen Act 2.0 when it comes to implementation.

    June 11, 2015
  • The Internal Revenue Service is making technology investments to move away from some programs it says started during the Kennedy Administration. Congress repeatedly slashed and froze its budget over the past five years, so it's important for the IRS to know exactly how much its IT investments will cost. According to the Government Accountability office, that's not exactly the case today. David Powner is director of information technology management issues at the GAO. He shared three recommendations to improve how the IRS tracks its investments with Federal News Radio's Jared Serbu on In Depth with Francis Rose.

    March 02, 2015
  • Federal Chief Information Officer Steve Van Roekel rolls out the Smarter IT Delivery Agenda. Its goal is to improve the way federal agencies buy IT. Van Roekel introduced the agenda yesterday at a hearing about IT acquisition in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee. David Powner, director of information technology management issues at the Government Accountability Office, was a witness on the same panel as Van Roekel and GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini. He tells In Depth with Francis Rose what his primary message for the committee was.

    May 09, 2014
  • 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.

    February 27, 2014
  • Agency officials said Thursday that they will switch from a custom-built to a commercial-off-the-shelf approach to modernize TECS, a mainframe system that has been operating for more than a quarter of a century. ICE spent more than $60 million before deciding to change directions after realizing the custom-built approach wouldn't work.

    February 10, 2014
  • On the In Depth show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories and resources we discuss.

    December 09, 2013
  • The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee pressed federal Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel, federal Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, Department of Health and Human Services CIO Frank Baitman and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services deputy CIO Henry Chao to acknowledge the oversight failings, and for someone to declare they were in charge of the program.

    November 14, 2013
  • The Government Accountability Office looked at two initiatives that are supposed to help get information technology spending under control. GAO found that both initiatives are coming up short.

    November 12, 2013
  • On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories and resources we discuss.

    November 12, 2013
  • On the Federal Drive show blog, you can listen to our interviews, find more information about the guests on the show each day, as well as links to other stories and resources we discuss.

    September 24, 2013