Changes at the top in govt, industry
Cisco Systems Inc., the Small Business Administration and SRA International Inc. have been shuffling execs in recent days.
At SRA, Chief Operating Officer David Kriegman announced he would end his 23-year stint with the company and retire Sept. 15. Renato DiPentima, SRA’s president and chief executive officer, will take over Kriegman’s responsibilities until the company names a successor.
SBA Administrator Steven Preston named Joel Szabat as the agency’s new chief of staff. Szabat last month assumed his new role as Preston’s primary adviser. Steve Galvan, who was serving as chief of staff, is continuing to serve as chief operating officer.
Alan Balutis, who stepped down Aug. 3 as president and CEO of government strategies for market research firm Input Inc. of Reston, Va., has joined Cisco as a distinguished fellow and director of its North American public sector consulting business.
Dems, GOP spar over Katrina
A top Bush Administration official said that big inroads have been made on communications problems that hobbled government’s response to Katrina, a claim Democrats have disputed.
The biggest post-Katrina communications problem was the inability of first responders to share information, and that problem has been fixed, said David Paulison, Federal Emergency Management Agency director.
But a Democratic National Committee spokeswoman accused President Bush’s administration of an “unconscionable” lack of progress in improving emergency communications and of blocking Democrats’ efforts to do so.
DISA wants more collaboration tools
The Defense Information Systems Agency director wants to see a request for quotations for a second collaboration services software tool hit the streets within 60 days.
In July, DISA awarded IBM Corp. a $17 million contract to provide enterprisewide “pay for use” collaboration services under its Net-Centric Enterprise Services program. DISA also plans to acquire a second commercially managed collaboration service to promote competition between the service providers.
Collaboration software should include instant messaging, text chat, Web conferencing and whiteboarding.
Senate mulls document management
The Senate is seeking commercial software that will help the chamber’s Sergeant-at-Arms manage purchase orders, invoices and other financial-management documents.
The Sergeant-at-Arms said it has budgeted $300,000 to buy and implement a document management system.
Interested contractors should provide details about their products, including their technical support abilities, by Sept. 6.
HUD to integrate financial systems
The Housing and Urban Development Department will seek enterprisewide implementation and integration of the PeopleSoft financial-management system as part of its accounting and financial modernization.
HUD aims to reduce the number of disparate legacy systems and transition its core systems to PeopleSoft to implement an integrated system that can produce auditable financial statements throughout the agency.
The contract will be for 18 months, with options for up to 10 years.
TWIC card delayed
The Homeland Security Department’s snakebit program to issue secure credentials to workers at ports, airports and other transportation hubs hit a new barrier this week. The Transportation Worker Identification Credential program faces a delay of one of its most important security requirements: a mandate that facility and vessel owners install biometric card readers in its first phase.
The Coast Guard and Transportation Security Administration issued the card reader installation delay Aug. 21.
Boeing lays out SBI strategy
The Boeing Co. team competing for the upcoming $2 billion Secure Border Initiative Network surveillance system contract is touting its experience in managing large groundbreaking projects for the government and its Israeli-based expertise in border security.
The Boeing team, one of five competing for the Homeland Security Department contract, hopes to capitalize on its experience managing similar one-of-a-kind programs such as the Army’s Future Combat Systems and NASA’s International Space Station.
Army releases ITES-hardware RFPs
The Army in August released a request for proposals for its $5 billion, Information Technology Enterprise Solutions-Hardware contracts.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity ITES-2H contracts will run for five years and involve seven contractors, including two small businesses. Army officials in July narrowed the field to 14 vendors.
HSPD-12 changes to FAR proposed
Federal procurement officials are proposing to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to specify how agencies should procure services to meet Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12 requirements.
The Civilian Agency Acquisition and the Defense Acquisition councils said the modifications require agencies to buy personal identity verification products and services compliant with Federal Information Processing Standard 201-1.
The proposed amendments also require the agencies to buy interoperable products, as outlined under HSPD-12.
DHS IG charges RFID security gaps
The Homeland Security Department lacks security controls for its radio frequency identification systems, said a report from DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner.
Overall, RFID physical security controls are good, but there are no department policies and procedures for management and protection of the systems, the IG said. Also lacking are security planning during system development and database security controls.
And operating procedures for RFID systems, including procedures to safeguard unused tags and destroy damaged tags, are incomplete or not consistently followed.
NSA, Swan Island team to share info
The National Security Agency has signed Swan Island Networks Inc. to develop a secure information-sharing solution.
The private sector owns most of the infrastructure that government and the military use, “and those networks were never designed with the levels of assurance in mind that those institutions demand,” said Dick Schaeffer, NSA information assurance director.
Swan Island will focus on so-called Last Mile intelligence techniques, such as management of service, caches and other needs at the outlying nodes of an IT network.
FirstGov, USDA portals score high
Web sites operated by the Agriculture Department and General Services Administration ranked tops in a recent Brown University analysis.
In its seventh annual state and federal e-government study, Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy ranked portals for New Jersey and Texas as the best by state governments.
Lowest-ranking portals include sites for Alaska, Mississippi, Wyoming and several federal appeals courts.
Brown evaluated 1,500 state and federal Web sites for content, foreign language features, disability services, ads, user fees, and security and privacy statements.
Texas grants homeland projects
Texas will direct funding to two high-priority IT projects as it allocates the $86 million in federal homeland security grants it will get this year, said Gov. Rick Perry (R).
The Texas Data Exchange System is a secure, Web-based network connecting more than 2,000 law enforcement databases in the state as well as federal databases. The electronic fingerprinting equipment uses electronic scanners rather than ink and paper, letting law enforcement officials submit prints and get results in seconds.
EPA, SSA seek personal ID cards
The Environmental Protection Agency and General Services Administration want to buy personal identity verification smart cards.
EPA needs 30,000 PIV cards under a firm, fixed-price contract to meet an upcoming deadline under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12.
GSA’s ’s Federal Technology Service, on behalf of the Social Security Administration, wants to see proposals from vendors to produce 100,000 PIVs as part of HSPD-12.
Under HSPD-12, agencies must begin issuing PIV cards to new employees by Oct. 27.
TWIC effectiveness questioned
The Transportation Security Administration’s plan to begin implementing the Transportation Workers Identification Credential without requiring card readers is running into opposition from a biometric industry representative.
“This is half a TWIC, a glorified Flash Pass,” said Walter Hamilton, chairman of the International Biometric Industry Association non-profit trade association.
The credential is a card with a microprocessor that uses radio frequency to convey information wirelessly to a card reader for verification.
DOD shutters OFT
The Pentagon’s Office of Force Transformation, created in 2001 as a think tank agency to shepherd how the services and agencies thought about transforming, will officially shut down Oct. 1.
OFT’s mission areas will be divided in two and dispersed throughout the Defense Department. The analysis and studies portions will go to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Policy, while the initiatives part will fall under a new office to be headed by John Young, deputy undersecretary of Defense for acquisition and technology, officials said.
Some key projects OFT pushed were Stiletto, a carbon-reinforced ship designed to support surveillance and reconnaissance in high-risk areas; and the Sense and Respond Logistics Concept.
Ak. emergency network goes live
The new Alaska Land Mobile Radio System is operational for 8,000 first responders and is adding more police and emergency responders to the system.
The interoperable statewide radio system is sponsored by the state, the Defense Department and other agencies, and has been funded with about $71 million in federal funds and $18 million in state funds thus far, said Maj. Gen. Craig E. Campbell, state commissioner of military and veterans affairs.
The total cost is estimated at $120 million.
Some agencies shun GSA store
With the General Services Administration urging agencies to sign up with its Managed Services Office, and as the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 deadline nears, a handful of agencies are going it alone.
Some, including the Interior Department’s National Business Center, are looking to become another shared-services provider, while the Environmental Protection Agency, the Labor Department and the Government Printing Office have all taken steps to meet aspects of the Oct. 27 deadline on their own.
OMB wants agency HSPD-12 plans
The Office of Management and Budget will be gauging agencies’ preparedness to begin issuing Personal Identity Verification cards over the next several weeks as the Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12 deadline draws closer, an OMB official said.
Agencies’ HSPD-12 compliance plans, updated from last year, will be due Sept. 8.
Brits launch digital radio
Police in England, Scotland and Wales within the past year have deployed a new digital radio system in what is being touted as a major advance in law enforment communications in the United Kingdom.
The Airwaves national digital radio system has hit most of its rollout goals and is in use by more than 150,000 officers, said a report by the Police IT Organisation.
The Airwaves service has not yet been extended to the London Underground subway system and failed to meet a target date of December 2005 to do so. That deployment likely will be complete by September, the report said.
