Senator requests GAO review of CIO role
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has expressed interest in updating the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 in a letter she sent to the Government Accountability Office last month.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has asked the Government Accountability Office to review the statutory framework for federal agency CIOs and potential modifications that could further enhance CIOs' authorities, according to Federal News Radio.
The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 required agencies to designate CIOs, but Collins wrote in her Feb. 12 letter to GAO that “challenges in implementing and overseeing major information technology investments still persist.”
Collins said in the letter that she is open to learning about proposed legislative improvements to the law to strengthen the role of CIOs governmentwide.
GAO last conducted reviews of CIOs' roles and responsibilities in 2004 and 2005. In the evaluation GAO did in 2005, which resulted in Congressional testimony, GAO examined the role of the CIO in the government and in the private sector. All of the federal CIOs GAO surveyed reported being responsible for five key areas: capital planning and investment management; information security; IT human capital; strategic planning for IT and information resource management; and enterprise architecture.
"Private-sector CIOs reported responsibilities, challenges and approaches to technology governance that are similar but not identical to those of their federal counterparts," GAO wrote.