A technological first is coming to the human resources department at Veterans Affairs. VA is scheduled to replace a 50-year-old HR system with first-of-its-kind HR software-as-a-service. The upgrade is scheduled for 2015 and is expected to make it easier for VA to manage its workforce of three hundred thousand. IBM won the $123 million contract. Right now VA and IBM are in the design, build and test phase of program.

Agencies get into trouble with industry when they don’t do what they promise, especially in awarding contracts. The General Services Administration found this out the hard way. It set out to award two competing contracts for travel services. It only awarded one. The losing bidder protested. The judge sided with Concurs, the company that didn’t get one of the two contracts.

David Medine has finally been confirmed as the new chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. That’s after a 2-1/2-year delay. Sharon Bradford Franklin, senior counsel at The Constitution Project, tells us about the delay and the outlook for the new chairman.

President Barack Obama calls it “outrageous” — IRS agents specifically targeting a group for political reasons. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration spent a year investigating claims that IRS employees unfairly scrutinized tea party groups leading up to the 2012 presidential election. A leaked draft of the report suggests executives knew about the practice.

Claims processing is tricky for so many agencies. The Office of Personnel Management is a case in point. Newly retired? It may be months before your annuity is finalized. Veterans Affairs faces a disability claims backlog in the hundreds of thousands. Why is it so hard to keep up with the paperwork? George Kettner, the founder of Economic Systems, recently testified before Congress about problems at OPM.