GAO News 
Top News
- IRS to pay $70M in bonuses, Grassley says
- Senators push Tangherlini for assurances GSA is improving
- As VA works to eliminate one backlog, one more might emerge
- BRAC-like commission proposed to hunt down government cost savings
- Sequestration claims another conference: DHS's GFirst cyber event
- Postal Service closing Capitol Hill post offices in 'symbolic' move
- Senators seek cost cuts for F-35 fighter jet
- Fed pens new furlough song
- Web guru Dorris brings new life to government websites
- EPA CIO Jackson returning to private sector
- Navy strikes enterprise licensing deal with Oracle
- Contractors with security clearances lack path to report problems
- NSA leak case gives vendors reason to reevaluate personnel
- 8 contract executives guilty of 8(a) contracting fraud
- Whistleblower suit leads to $12M false claims settlement by SAIC
- USPS reaches energy reduction goal ahead of schedule
Federal Drive Interviews -- Oct. 9, 2012
John Kasianowicz is the NIST project leader on a project coming up with a cheaper way to test DNA for possible illnesses. GAO's John Hutton says that few agencies are compiling inventories for their service contracts. Procurement attorney Joe Petrillo discusses a new inspector general's report. Dr. Harry Lambright of Syracuse University studied the effectiveness of two former federal officials. David Hall-Matthews talks about a ranking of nonprofits.
Agencies ignoring billions in savings from strategic sourcing
Agencies are missing out on billions of dollars in savings by not using strategic-sourcing contracts, particularly when buying services, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The report finds the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Energy spent less than 5 percent of their combined acquisition budgets through strategic sourcing and saved less than $2 billion.
GAO denies SAIC protest of Defense IT contract
A massive contract awarded to Lockheed Martin in June to manage the Defense Information Systems Agency's Global Information Grid remains in place after the Government Accountability Office denied a bid protest from fellow contractor SAIC. Despite SAIC's allegations, GAO found DISA had reasonably evaluated Lockheed's proposal as well as claims of an organization conflict of interest.
Berry aims to nix HR from high risk list in the next year
Cyber criminals might unknowingly provide the impetus to help agencies address a cybersecurity skills gap. OPM also is working with agencies to address other shortfalls in key workforce competencies.
GAO says mobile malware attacks have tripled in less than a year
The Government Accountability Office said reports of malware targeting mobile devices have nearly tripled in less than a year.
DoD works to institutionalize contracting lessons from Iraq, Afghanistan
Pentagon says planning for future contingencies will include contract management from the get-go rather than letting be an afterthought.
Few retired feds cash in on dual compensation
Among six federal agencies surveyed, few are using a defense waiver allowing partially retired workers to collect a salary and their full pension benefit, a new Government Accountability Office report says.
Agencies doing job they already paid FPS to do
A new Government Accountability Office report says the Federal Protective Service isn't doing enough to safeguard more than 9,000 federal buildings.
Bill would give DoD incentives to audit its books on time
New legislation from several senators would let DoD reprogram funds without congressional approval.
DoD, State implement only fraction of wartime contracting recommendations
A new Government Accountability Office report found that three main actors in contingency contracting — the Defense and State Departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development — will likely only implement a fraction of the recommendations set out by the Commission on Wartime Contracting. The agencies have either determined their existing policies already address the commission's concerns or they disagreed with the recommendation in the first place, GAO found.
Gov't report: Tax cheats getting paid by Medicaid
Thousands of Medicaid health care service providers still got paid by the government even though they owed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxes, congressional investigators say. A legal technicality is making it harder for the IRS to collect.
Federal Drive interviews - Aug. 2
BGov's Kevin Brancato explains how tight budgets are reversing a trend from best-value to best- price in government contracting. And the GAO looks at the effectiveness of food recalls.
VA not doing enough to verify service-disabled veteran owned firms
GAO highlights a need for tighter controls to fix the contracting program.
Multiple roles more help than hindrance, say agency CAOs
The Government Accountability Office looked at how agencies were complying with the Services Acquisitions Reform Act of 2003. It discovered that while many chief acquisition officers had assumed duties far beyond what the act intended, that might not be such a bad thing.
DoD extends civilian hiring restrictions through 2018
Pentagon hiring freeze for civilian employees will last several more years, although Defense Department leaders say they'll grant exemptions to give the department flexibility.
TSP faces challenges in adopting socially responsible investment fund, report says
The Government Accountability Office compared an existing socially responsible investment stock index to the stock portfolio of the federal Thift Savings Plan and discovered several barriers existed for feds hoping to adopt a more socially conscious approach to their retirement planning.
Sequestration and pay
AFGE's Public Policy Director Jacque Simon and
Stephen Losey and Sean Reilly of the Federal Times
will talk about the big issues affecting federal
workers.
July 25, 2012
State's lack of middle managers risks diplomacy
The State Department has a gap in its work force. It has too few experienced, mid-level career foreign service employees. It's the result of several factors...and it's a serious problem.
GAO, FPS disagree over ability to assess federal building risk
The Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool does not provide information about the consequences of security incidents at federal facilities, a GAO auditor said. As a result, agencies cannot effectively deploy countermeasures. Still, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) said he was happy with FPS' progress in developing MIST.
Federal pay statistics are easily manipulated, GAO reports
The Government Accountability Office looked at six studies about federal pay and found that the different approaches taken in each made their findings potentially problematic.
