OMB: 2004 good year for E-Gov Act implementation

The Office of Management and Budget is analyzing how to more effectively use technology to enhance crisis management. In a report due Sept. 30, OMB will look at R&D opportunities and how entities can transfer the technology to operational systems.Under the E-Government Act of 2002, OMB is required to perform this and a host of other tasks ranging from electronic signatures to privacy to agency IT workforce development. The administration earlier this week described in detail the government’s accomplishments in implementing the act in the fiscal 2004 to Congress.“E-Government is a program founded on innovation and driven by the entrepreneurial energy of government agencies and industry,” OMB said in the report. “We are striving for concrete, measurable results.”Under phase two of the crisis management analysis, OMB has until April 30, 2006, to notify the House Government Reform and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees how it will implement the findings and recommendations from the first report.In the E-Government report to lawmakers, OMB outlined 12 accomplishments from last year, including raising the security of IT systems, expanding FirstGov.gov and increasing the agency use of enterprise architecture to improve IT investments.OMB also detailed some of its priorities for this year. The administration said e-government principles will improve the budget formulation process and integrate budget and performance metrics.“The budget of the future would employ standards and technologies for electronic information exchange and the integration of budget and financial information throughout all phases of the annual budget formulation and execution cycle,” OMB said in the report. “The budget of the future will directly contribute to improved mission performance and results.”OMB said it expects more agencies to migrate to the electronic docket system developed under the Regulations.gov E-Government project.The administration will issue policies by December for adopting standards for categorizing and indexing government information and, along with the National Archives and Records Administration, will issue an electronic records management policy.The report also detailed how OMB spent the $3 million e-government fund in 2004. The Small Business Administration’s Business Gateway project received $1 million, after receiving more than $2.3 million over the previous two years.OMB also spent $1.2 million on the marketing, utilization, validation and verification analysis support for the 25 Quicksilver initiatives, and $750,000 for work by the Lines of Business Consolidation project task forces.