NASA‘s office of inspector general has called on the agency to improve the implementation of policy on unmanned aircraft systems acquisition and management.

The OIG said in a report published Monday that NASA centers inadequately implemented agency policy on UAS procurement and inventory tracking, which has resulted to unauthorized drone purchases and inefficient inventory control.

Auditors found that 231 of NASA’s 410 UAS acquisitions since 2009 were bought without necessary approvals.

NASA’s property system contains incomplete and inaccurate information on UAS, rendering certain systems invisible to other potential users and hampering the capacity to share UAS between centers, the report stated.

The OIG added center officials do not dispose of unnecessary UAS platforms in a timely manner to make them available to other potential users within and outside the agency.

The report recommended that NASA develop a process to routinely inform users of UAS acquisition requirements; establish criteria on how to identify UAS and determine the number of spare parts to maintain; and create a checklist to ensure the proper implementation of UAS acquisition procedures.

The OIG also called on the agency to enforce a bar code system for UAS tracking and require centers to identify and eliminate unneeded UAS or provide a reason to retain them.

The inspector general found that NASA’s research contributed “effectively” to the Federal Aviation Administration‘s efforts to integrate civil, commercial and government UAS into the national airspace.

FAA and NASA have partnered on two UAS-related research projects, including the UAS in the NAS initiative to develop operational performance standards and the UAS Traffic Management effort to develop a traffic management system for aerial drones.

The audit report said the two programs met all schedule and technical objectives within the allotted time and budgets.

Robert Strayer, former general counsel for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has joined the State Department as deputy assistant secretary for cyber and international communications and information policy.

Strayer will lead U.S. engagement on technology policy and digital economy with international organizations in his new role, the Computer & Communications Industry Association said Thursday.

“As the primary external representative for the United States’ technology policy, Strayer will coordinate the engagement and positions of a range of economic and diplomatic agencies to advocate a platform that promotes innovation and emerging technologies,” said CCIA President and CEO Ed Black.

Black added CCIA hopes that Strayer receives an ambassadorship to help him advocate on behalf of the U.S. digital economy.

Strayer previously served as adjunct law professor at the George Mason University’s law school; director of the homeland security project at the Bipartisan Policy Center; and counsel and Republican deputy staff director on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

He also worked at law firm WilmerHale, where he practiced telecommunications law.

The Government Accountability Office has called on five federal agencies to fully implement planning practices to transition to a follow-on program to the Networx telecommunications contract in order to avoid additional costs and schedule delays.

GAO said in a report published Thursday the transition planning practices that it wants agencies to adopt include the development of inventories; integration of strategic requirements into transition planning; establishment of a structured transition management approach; identification of resources needed for the transition; and creation of transition processes.

The report showed that the departments of Transportation, Labor and Agriculture and the Social Security Administration partially adopted each of the five transition planning practices.

The Securities and Exchange Commission partially executed three practices and fully implemented one planning practice.

The congressional watchdog also urged the General Services Administration to include all lessons learned from prior telecoms contract transitions in its guidance and plans in order to help agencies avoid repeating previous mistakes.

The report found that GSA determined 35 lessons learned from previous contract transitions and 17 of those were fully addressed in transition guidance issued to agencies.

GSA partially addressed nine lessons learned in its guidance and plans but failed to address seven lessons, GAO noted.

Ted McCan, policy assistant to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), has said lawmakers are expected to introduce in the next few weeks a bill that aims to advance the development of evidence-based policies by federal agencies, Federal News Radio reported Friday.

McCan said Thursday at the Government Executive Fedstival 2017 the new measure would be based on a report from the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking and seeks to help agencies understand how federal initiatives work through the use of government data.

“I think you’ll see parts of the commission — from that access, the privacy side and the evaluation capacity side — all three of those will be included in the first round of legislation,” he added.

The commission’s The Promise of Evidence-Based Policymaking report includes 22 recommendations for Congress and agencies that seek to increase data access, promote data privacy and build up the government’s evidence-building capability.

Nancy Potok, a member of the commission and chief statistician at the Office of Management and Budget, said the report recommends the establishment of a national secure data service that will work to link government records that could be delivered back to its original owners after use.

“So it’s not that all the data in government gets put into a central data warehouse,” Potok said.

“If you have a project or evaluation that you want to do and it requires confidential data, protected data, there is a service that is expert at this, that can link that for you, you can get secure access,” she added.