IRMCO opens with telework talk

Martha Johnson, the General Services Administration's new administrator, backed telework with a resolve that suggests the weight of GSA will come to bear on agencies trying to increase the practice — and those that continue to resist.

“Why are you not teleworking? Are you in love with the 1980s for some reason?” Johnson said in a speech at GSA's Interagency Resources Management Conference, underway now in Cambridge, Md.

GSA Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Turco, in an interview with Federal News Radio's Tom Temin, said the government is continuing efforts to consolidate and streamline its financial operations. The recent closure of the Office of Management and Budget's Financial Systems Integration Office and the creation of the Financial Innovation and Transformation Office at the Treasury Department shows the transformation effort has made some progress since the creation of the Financial Management Line of Business under the Bush administration, she said.

"It takes it further down the line," Turco said in the radio interview. "The Line of Business is about a shared services model. We have to evolve. What we need to do is improve our ability to process our financial data faster, closing our books faster, report out and have quality over that reporting, and to do the analysis. That's really where we're stymied is around the financial analysis."

However, the government has a long way to go, she said. "We're probably several years away from where we want to be."

The conference continues through April 14. Upcoming sessions will cover disruptive technologies, acquisition innovation, developing a mobile workforce and open government plans.