A new Congressional Budget Office analysis has found that performing a common type of maintenance work on the U.S. Navy’s Los Angeles-class attack submarines (SSN-688) at the service’s public shipyards is more expensive than at private shipyards, USNI News reported Thursday.

The finding stems from CBO’s examination of Docking Selected Restricted Availability overhaul work for attack submarines and three cost comparisons made between private and public shipyards for different time periods.

The agency also found that public shipyards recorded $26.1M in unadjusted average cost of DSRA maintenance compared with $20.9M at their counterparts in the private sector, according to the report’s summary obtained by the publication.

CBO then took into account the overhead costs to reflect the move to the mission funding model and found that the average DSRA costs “at private shipyards were 38 percent lower than at public shipyards” between 1993 and 2017.

“The Navy looks forward to reviewing the details and analysis in the CBO report. Ship maintenance is critical to meeting the [National Defense Strategy],” Capt. Danny Hernandez, a spokesman for the service, said in a statement.
 

The Government Accountability Office recently said that the rate at which the Defense Department conducts competitions when procuring products or services has declined in the past five years despite government-wide efforts to encourage the practice.

The federal watchdog agency noted in an audit report published Wednesday that from 2013 to 2017, the DoD’s competition rate went down by more than 4 percent even as the competition rates of civilian agencies went up by 1.6 percent.

The GAO, drawing from previous DoD assessments, attributed the regression to multiple factors including the complexity of the DoD’s contracting procedures and the lack of data rights resulting in the government’s reliance on original equipment manufacturers for the upkeep of purchased systems.

The GAO did observe, however, that memos promoting the practice of conducting competitions were issued from 2010 to 2015 by then-undersecretaries for acquisition, technology and logistics.

DoD programs that implemented or aligned with the memos’ recommendations yielded better acquisition outcomes or gained billions in buying power, the GAO reported.

The Office of Management and Budget has administered a symposium encouraging public and private sector entities to develop ways to retrain government employees as part of the President’s Management Agenda, FCW reported Wednesday.

The PMA, which was released in March, states that the Trump administration aims to reorganize the federal workforce using practices from private companies.

As part of the reorganization, the government has started implementing a plan to merge some of the responsibilities of the Office of Personnel Management, like retirement services, federal employee healthcare and insurance, into the General Services Administration.

During the symposium, Margaret Weichert, deputy director for management at OMB, also discussed the proposed Government Effectiveness Advance Research center as part of the workforce reshaping plan.

Weichert previously explained that the GEAR center will retrain employees for modern jobs, as well as guide the government in streamlining its service delivery processes.

Additionally, OMB used the symposium to initiate discussions on technology, performance management and civil service reform.

The Department of Veterans Affairs maintains a process for authorizing and assessing information technology systems as part of cybersecurity efforts in VA’s telehealth program, Federal News Radio reported Wednesday.

Neil Evans, chief officer in the Office of Connected Care at the Veterans Health Administration, told the radio station in an interview the authority to operate process is intended to facilitate quality IT development efforts.

“It is imperative that VA does IT thoughtfully and that we make sure that that we are building a system that is secure and that protects the data and the information of the veterans,” he added.

The VA’s Connected Health program works to help patients receive various medical services and connect them with providers through a video communications platform.

Evans said the department also uses tools that allow veterans to book medical appointments and manage health data in their mobile devices.

Sam Musa, former chief of information technology services for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, has joined the Government Publishing Office as its new chief information officer.

Musa’s new responsibilities include managing IT policies on the acquisition, implementation and operation of telecommunications and IT systems and ensuring the agency’s budget aligns with program plans and established financial guidelines, GPO said Monday.

He will also monitor the use of information resources for various program requirements.

The 20-year federal government IT veteran will also oversee GPO’s IT customer, infrastructure, network and telecommunication, enterprise and acquisitions and budget services branches.

As head of EEOC’s IT services, Musa administered security operations and launched various cybersecurity programs for the agency.

He also previously held leadership roles at the National Weather Service, FBI and National Guard Bureau.