An interagency task force has almost completed its work on a draft of a new version of Office of Management and Budget Circular A-76. The circular dictates rules for public-private competitions for government work. "I have a draft version on my desk right now," said Angela Styles, administrator of OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy.
Focus groups, polling and listening to online feedback: Those are some of the ways the Canadian government keeps its award-winning Web sites relevant and useful to its citizens and businesses.
The Bush administration is working on e-gov-related homeland security initiatives that will concentrate on architecture and on beginning pilot projects that can push information integration.
The Transportation Security Administration is being asked to go from zero to 50,000 ? people, that is ? in one year. Signed into existence by President Bush Nov. 19, 2001, as one of the first homeland security initiatives, the TSA was created in part to provide the infrastructure for protecting the nation's airports and travelers.
President Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department will rely heavily on data sharing and analysis to combat terrorist threats, and will require a systems infrastructure to support that mission -- a complex integration challenge that already has information technology companies scrambling for a piece of the action.
In addition to procurement contracts and research grants available to all agencies, Congress in 1989 allowed the Defense Department to use "other transactions" to develop information systems and other technologies for military and intelligence services.
Government and information technology industry officials are anxiously awaiting a new federal procurement rule, to be issued June 26, that is meant to ensure adequate competition on Defense Department multiple-award contracts.
The Bush administration is working on e-gov-related homeland security initiatives that will concentrate on architecture and on beginning pilot projects that can push information integration. The architecture or foundation projects will look at the processes needed for sharing and analyzing information across agencies and between state, local and federal agencies, said Mark Forman of the Office of Management and Budget.
The Defense Department has rethought plans to disqualify foreign nationals from jobs that include handling unclassified but sensitive information technology.
The White House intends to act quickly on recommendations by a high-level government panel that call for sweeping changes in conducting public-private competitions. But Congress could slow implementation of some of the planned reforms until it has a chance to review administration proposals and put its own stamp on the new rules.
In my Aug. 13, 2001, article on the General Services Administration's Federal Supply Schedule, I discussed the standards that the General Accounting Office and the GSA itself have established for conducting procurements based on FSS contracts, formally known as the Multiple Award Schedule.
A year ago, many industry and government executives were looking ahead to June 25, 2001, as a "panic day," said Terry Weaver, director of the Center for IT Accommodation at the General Services Administration.
Office of Management and Budget officials outlined plans for a new portal on which individuals can comment on proposed federal rules. In a May 3 memo to agency heads, OMB Director Mitch Daniels said the initiative will consolidate fragmented rulemaking efforts.
A panel of federal, academic, union and business representatives are think the government should replace the A-76 process for public-private competitions with a new competitive process based largely on existing Federal Acquisition Regulations.
The Labor Department launched April 29 a new federal Web site, <a href="http://govbenefits.gov">GovBenefits.gov</a>, that brings together information from many agencies about federal benefits programs. The site is organized the way citizens see the world, said D. Cameron Findlay, deputy secretary of the Department of Labor.
Governments are becoming sophisticated in using the Internet to improve service delivery and operational efficiency, according to Accenture's third annual report.
The Office of Management and Budget soon will dole out $4.1 million to a trio of e-government programs, the FirstGov project and to an effort to educate agencies about managing change.
BetterManagement.com announced the launch of its Government Excellence Resource Center, a portal designed to help public-sector organizations improve their performance.
