News

The Defense Contract Audit Agency faces an audit backlog and a staff shortage,  according to a report this week in Federal Times. In 2006,  $110 billion had been spent by federal agencies on contracted work that had not yet been audited. By 2010, that number had grown to $405 billion. …

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has a new No. 2, to report directly to the intel agency’s director, Gen. James Clapper. The Senate confirmed last week ODNI’s pick, Stephanie O’Sullivan, as principle deputy. She will hold the second-highest position in the Intelligence Community. In addition to her …

The budget for the nation’s myriad of intelligence activities is bucking the historical trend in three important ways. First, unlike overall defense spending, which is expected to flat-line or decline in the coming years, the intelligence budget, which has doubled in the past 10 years, is growing and will likely …

At a New York City conference sponsored by The Economist, federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra said the government is continuing on its path to the cloud and will take a page from the private tech sector to do so. “I just spent some time in California talking with innovative …

The head of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy said at a forum last week strengthening the acquisition workforce is the No. 1 priority in federal procurement. Dan Gordon, administrator of OFPP, said while the feds have put stock in their campaign to increase communication between federal contracting officials and …

The General Service’s Administrations point-person for all things cloud computing said, like almost every new technology, the economics “are driving the transformation.” Speaking at the Cloud/Gov 2011 conference, Sanjeev “Sonny” Bhagowalia, deputy associate administrator at the General Services Administration’s Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies, said the government’s recently …

As the winter weather has turned federal workers into potential teleworkers today, the Office of Personnel Management is highlighting new numbers that show teleworking is increasing across the federal government and bringing higher job satisfaction with it. According to an OPM report on teleworking the agency submitted to Congress, the …

When the Defense Department released its first-ever national security strategy for space last month, that was just the beginning of exploring the final frontier, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn said this week at a forum on space policy. “Space is no longer the private preserve of the U.S. and …

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen took the department’s 2012 budget to the House Armed Services Committee defending the $553 billion request as striking the right balance between preserving the strength of the military and downsizing the department’s costs. But, …

The Office of Personnel Management announced it has completed a governmentwide cybersecurity survey and the agency is now using those results to put together a picture of the perfect — or, at least, the most competent — federal cyber professional. “Cybersecurity is essential to protecting the American people,” said OPM …