Treasury IT jobs shift

The Treasury Department last week started transferring part of its information technology staff to the Homeland Security Department, and officials are now struggling to figure out how staff changes will affect operations.

As part of the homeland security realignment across government, Treasury is migrating several of its largest bureaus to other agencies, including moving the Secret Service and the Customs Service to the Homeland Security Department and moving the majority of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the Justice Department.

The staff shuffle of the IT support staff to go with those organizations started last week, with about 30 people moving to the Homeland Security Department, said Patrick Hargett, Treasury's director of enterprise IT planning and operations, in a speech Feb. 24 at the Federal Networks 2003 conference in Vienna, Va., sponsored by TeleStrategies Inc.

Treasury will likely end up transferring more than 50 people, Hargett said. But there is still just as much work to do at the department for daily operations and modernization efforts, particularly as officials work to make sure the transition goes smoothly, he said.

"I have to find ways of literally doing more with less folks," he said.

The Treasury IT staff was shrinking even before these changes. Last year, former acting chief information officer Mayi Canales announced a goal to streamline IT operations at the department. At that time, it was estimated that 75 positions would be eliminated.

Treasury's IT leadership has also recently undergone major changes, and the department is still working with an acting CIO, Mike Parker.