Defense Department
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The Defense Department is getting smarter about workforce planning — making sure it has the right people with the right skills in the right positions. But DoD's five-year strategic workforce plan, released last fall, is short on details in a few key areas, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.
July 14, 2014 -
Congress has approved $8 billion for 26 inland waterway improvement projects. But, many of those projects won't be completed for another 50 to 60 years. The Army Corps of Engineers is looking to speed up the process through public private partnerships.
July 14, 2014 -
Over the past decade, Congress has stepped up pressure on the Defense Department to gather data about its civilian workforce, and to use that data to develop a strategic workforce plan. The Pentagon has a plan, but according to the Government Accountability Office, it has
July 14, 2014 -
Despite steps forward, agencies fell short of their 2014 targets for cybersecurity. The Obama administration is pushing chief information officers to focus on priorities of continuous monitoring, phishing and malware, and authorization processes for 2015, according to the newly released cross-agency priority goals on Performance.gov.
July 14, 2014 -
The military is trying to figure out why an F-35 engine caught fire, leading the Pentagon to ground the fledgling fleet. Meanwhile, program office planners are looking long term. They're thinking about how to control maintenance costs on a fleet that will eventually reach more than 2,000 aircraft and fly for the next 40 years. Defense News reported that planners are considering a worldwide competition for maintenance. Hal Chrisman, vice president of ICF International, has 25 years experience in the aviation industry. He joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to discuss what sustainment work entails.
July 11, 2014 -
A major war contractor is expecting a $45 million check from the U.S. government. A military appeals board has sided with Kellogg Brown & Root in its quest to get the government to reimburse it for security in Iraq. KBR paid out of its own pocket for private guards to protect convoys carrying supplies to the U.S. military. Procurement Attorney Joe Petrillo joined Tom Temin and Emily Kopp on the Federal Drive to take a closer look at the five-year battle in this week's Legal Loop.
July 10, 2014 -
A new performance award strategy could rise from the ashes of a now-defunct pay system at the Defense Department. DoD tried to replace the General Schedule system with a National Security Personnel System back in the mid-2000s, but the White House repealed it two years ago. Bob Tobias is Director of Key Executive Leadership Programs at American University. He was part of a Task Force that tried to improve the system back in 2009. He said one bright spot in the system could be the key to building a new performance culture across the federal government on In Depth with Francis Rose.
July 09, 2014 -
A new bipartisan report from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations called the Air Force's now-canceled Expeditionary Combat Support System "one of the most egregious examples of mismanagement by the DoD in recent memory." But the failure of ECSS may not be an aberration, the report suggested. Other enterprise-resource planning programs in the department are at risk of falling victim to the same fate.
July 09, 2014 -
The restrictions on feds' travel opportunities are having too many unintended consequences, says Larry Allen, president of Allen Federal Business Partners.
July 09, 2014 -
A specially-formed commission tasked with modernizing military compensation released an interim report in anticipation of its full recommendations due in February. The document reviews massive changes that have occurred since the military switched to an all-volunteer force in 1973.
July 08, 2014 -
Former Deputy Defense Secretary Bill Lynn says the Pentagon needs to adjust its strategy to take advantage of the global and commercial technology markets.
July 08, 2014 -
Sean C. Young and Benjamin J. Tran, two electronics engineers with the Air Force Research Lab created an aerial sensor that has helped U.S. service members to find and destroy dangerous improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Afghanistan.
July 07, 2014 -
Among ten topics the Army's new undersecretary says he's pondering: the service's seeming inability to convince policymakers of the need to keep a standing active duty force of about the size the nation has today, even during budget cuts.
July 07, 2014 -
Under the Obama administration's strategic sourcing cross-agency priority goal, new commodity managers will oversee "hallways" for information technology, administration and human resources across government. The hope is that the managers and their teams of experts will be able to offer guidance and best practices to agencies when it comes to strategic sourcing.
July 03, 2014 -
ASM Research won a three-year, $162 million contract to help modernize the electronic health records system at the Veterans Affairs Department. The VistA system has been at the center of a modernization and expansion debate for years.
July 03, 2014