Digital Government

Education puts docs on agency intranet

Education Department officials have launched a new service on the agency's intranet that they hope will help Education employees provide better customer service. The feature, called The Learning Network, is a series of training and human resources development documents that department officials beg

Digital Government

SEI tapped for Bureau of Indian Affairs financial system

Interior Department officials last week announced they had chosen SEI Investments to replace a beleaguered inhouse system that the agency has used for decades to manage billions of trust dollars for American Indians. The department maintains almost 350,000 trust accounts for American Indians and I

Digital Government

Audit mess tied to schedule woes

While members of Congress and the General Accounting Office last week blamed inadequate information technology systems for agencies' inability to create accurate financial statements, federal financial officials complain they are unable to purchase quality financial management systems (FMS) through

Digital Government

GAO: Financial information at risk

Gene Dodaro, the General Accounting Office's assistant comptroller general, told members of Congress last week that computer security could be compromised as agencies work to fix their Year 2000 problem, leaving critical financial information vulnerable to cyberattacks. Dodaro, testifying before th

Digital Government

IT problems at the root of government's audit woes

Members of Congress and the General Accounting Office today said shortcomings in agencies' information technology systems including everything from security to poorly integrated systems were one of the reasons agencies cannot generate accurate financial statements.

Digital Government

IT lobbying group defends stance on worker shortage

The Information Technology Association of America is defending itself in the wake of a General Accounting Office report that claims concerns over nationwide shortage of information technology workers may be overstated.

Digital Government

Senators consider creating separate Y2K committee

Senate leaders are considering creating a special committee that would take a lead role in overseeing agencies' and industry's Year 2000 problem, according to sources familiar with Senate plans. Sen. Robert Bennett (RUtah), a member of the Governmental Affairs Committee and chairman of a Senate su

Digital Government

EIA changes name, broadens focus

The 74yearold Electronic Industries Association last week announced that it has changed its name, opening up its ranks to other associations and laying the groundwork for a broader membership base of information technology and electronics companies. The new organization, called the Electronic Ind

Digital Government

House, Senate to begin hearings on public/private competition

Two congressional subcommittees are scheduled to meet tomorrow to begin hearings on legislation that would open up government functions, such as data processing, to competition between agencies and businesses. The legislation, the Senate's Fair Competition Act of 1998 and the House's Competition in

Digital Government

Agencies start to wield past-performance club

Federal agencies have started to wield the pastperformance stick that Congress gave them in information technology reform legislation by using vendors' success rates on previous IT contracts to evaluate bids on pending pacts. One of the more strict pastperformance evaluations in government is the

Digital Government

Vendors display wares, innovative technologies

Information technology vendors at last week's FOSE conference in Washington, D.C., displayed a wide array of upcoming or recent product releases, ranging from a data warehouse application tailored for federal agencies to a storage device that measures an inch across. Software firm SAS Institute Inc

Digital Government

SEC gets Year 2000 warning

In reporting to Congress on the Year 2000 problem, the Securities and Exchange Commission has failed to single out the computer systems that may be critical to the continued functioning of U.S. stock markets in the next millennium, according to a General Accounting Office report released this month

Digital Government

Visionics unmasks face-recognition tech

Looking to expand its reach in the federal market, facerecognition vendor Visionics Corp. last week released a product that allows users to sift through huge databases of facial images to find a match for a particular individual. The new product, called FaceIt DB, is designed to allow federal offi

Digital Government

DOJ scraps large-scale JCON rollout

The Justice Department scrapped a mammoth office automation program that was part of a $500 million contract with GTE Government Systems Corp. and awarded two blanket purchase agreements that the agency will now use to fill much of its office automation needs. DOJ originally awarded the Justice Con

Digital Government

ERDAS software performs NITF translation

Imagery software vendor ERDAS Inc. earlier this month released an application that lets imagery analysts and electronic map makers using the latest version of the company's flagship product translate their files to and from a digital imagery standard used by government agencies and other organizati

Digital Government

Union backers fight bill outsourcing IT

Supporters of federal unions squared off against industry representatives last week at a congressional hearing on proposed legislation that may require the government to hand over certain information technology functions such as datacenter operations and software development to the private sec

Digital Government

White House mulls Year 2000 legislation

In the wake of a report showing most agencies still far behind in reprogramming computers for the Year 2000 problem, the Clinton administration said last week it may seek legislation that would give some agencies a stronger role in overseeing the millennium fix for service contractors, insurance co

Digital Government

NASA teleconferencing system to hasten spacecraft design

NASA has chosen a small arsenal of commercial products to create a new agencywide teleconferencing system that should help the agency design spacecraft more quickly and inexpensively. The system a loose configuration of more than a dozen hardware and software products will offer an alternative

Digital Government

Gansler says IT savings will help modernize nation's defense

Jacques Gansler, Defense undersecretary for acquisition and technology, went to the Hill Feb. 26 to champion the Defense Department's plans to operate more efficiently by using information technology and by streamlining procurement. But a highranking member of the House National Security Committee said the plan does not go far enough and that program cuts may be needed.

Digital Government

Hazzard links users without wire

In the late 1960s, while many teens were heeding acid guru Timothy Leary's advice of 'tune in, turn on, drop out,' a fresh Army draftee named Larry Hazzard was tuning in to his own message. Hazzard outgoing program manager of the General Services Administration's Federal Wireless Telecommunicatio