John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, has said Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani has launched efforts to address corruption involving monopolies and oligarchs that draw off money from U.S. and Afghan contracts, Defense News reported Monday.

Sopko told Defense News reporter Jen Judson in an interview that corruption is one of the problems Afghanistan’s unity government currently faces amid a drawdown in U.S. troops and security challenges in the country.

“One of the things that came out of my meeting with [Ghani] is that we worked out an arrangement where he is going to give my people full access to the Kabul bank records to try to track down the money and recover it for the Afghan government and the Afghan people,” Sopko said.

He told Defense News that his team has begun to conduct financial and program audits of the projects launched by the now-defunct Task Force for Business and Stability Operations within the Defense Department.

TFBSO closed in 2015 five years after it was launched to help Afghanistan in its economic rebuilding efforts.

Sopko noted that his office also plans to carry out an audit of the Kajakai Dam construction project and Promote, an education initiative that the U.S. Agency for International Development launched for Afghan women.

The Commerce Department has appointed 11 new members to its Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness that advises the Transportation Department, other U.S. agencies and the commerce secretary on supply chain issues.

ACSCC increased its total members to 45 senior-level private sector representatives and supply chain experts of multiple industries that provided the President Barack Obama’s administration officials with recommendations related to single window and American freight-related issues, the Commerce Department said Friday.

“These new committee members are leaders in their fields and represent supply chain firms, associations, stakeholders, and community organizations,” said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.

Pritzker noted that the new appointees’ advice, information and recommendations will look to help in the department’s efforts to expand U.S. exports.

New advisory board members include:

• Jaqueline Faseler, global supply chain sustainability director at Dow Chemical Company
• Jonathan Gold,  vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation
• Walter Kemmsies, chief economist at Moffat & Nichol
• Houston Mason, director of distribution at McCormick and Company
• Elizabeth Ogard, president at Prime Focus
• Bethann Rooney, deputy director of the port commerce department for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
• Gene Seroka, executive director for the Port of Los Angeles
• Yossi Sheffi, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s center for transportation and logistics
• Jon Slangerup, Port of Long Beach CEO
• Prem William, a vice president at HAVI Global Solutions
• Melzana Wilson, vice president of compliance at Mallory Alexander International Logistics

The White House has proposed a bill that would create a $3.1 billion revolving fund to help federal agencies update their legacy information technology systems and bolster the government’s cybersecurity posture.

U.S. Chief Information Officer Tony Scott, a 2016 Wash100 recipient, wrote in a blog entry posted Friday the White House’s proposal calls for the General Services Administration to oversee a government-wide Information Technology Modernization Fund.

He added the bill would also establish an independent board of experts to help identify agency IT systems that face the highest risk for potential cyber attacks as well as strategies to facilitate adoption of common platforms and cybersecurity best practices across the government.

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Friday he plans to introduce the White House’s legislative ITMF proposal to the lower chamber this week.

The initiative is “a major step toward transforming the way our government invests in upgrading its infrastructure to serve the American people more effectively and to keep their private information safe,” Hoyer added.

Boeing has proposed a new schedule for the production and delivery of the KC-46 tanker aircraft following troubles the company encountered during the development of the first four aircraft.

The Government Accountability Office said Friday Boeing plans to turn over 18 aircraft to the U.S. Air Force by August 2017 and complete operational testing by October 2017.

GAO added that the contractor will deliver the aircraft over six months instead of the initial plan of 14 months.

Boeing will also use its own resources to correct defects that might be discovered later in the production, according to GAO.

GAO is mandated under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 to review the KC-46 program each year through 2017.

Stephen Preston — chairman of law firm WilmerHale defense, national security and government contracts practice – has been selected to join the White House’s Intelligence Advisory board.

Obama announced an intent to appoint Preston for a membership in the president’s intelligence advisory board in a release posted Friday.

Preston has previously served as general counsel for the Defense Department, CIA and U.S. Navy prior to his current stint with WilmerHale.

POTUS has also selected Wendy Sherman, senior counselor at Albright Stonebridge Group, to be part of the intelligence advisory board.

Sherman also currently serves as a senior fellow for Harvard University’s Belfer Center for science and international affairs.

She previously held roles as under secretary of state for political affairs, acting deputy secretary of state and counselor for the State Department.

Sherman was also the president and CEO of the Fannie Mae Foundation and has served on the commission on the prevention of weapons of mass destruction, proliferation and terrorism.

NASA has begun work to recover its Kepler satellite after the agency declared it to be in emergency mode about 36 hours prior to a communications session, Space News reported Saturday.

Jeff Foust writes the emergency has disrupted science observations and the cause of the incident remains unclear.

Charlie Sobeck, Kepler mission manager, said spacecraft operators detected the emergency when they communicated with the spacecraft on April 7, according to the report.

Emergency mode means the spacecraft will gain priority access to NASA’s Deep Space Network in order to fast-track restoration of the spacecraft’s control, according to Sobeck.

Kepler is on an extended mission to study areas of the sky in an effort to find extrasolar planets and observe other astronomical phenomena, Foust reports.

Katherine Hammack, assistant secretary of the U.S. Army for installations, energy and the environment, has said one of the focus areas for the installation community is to authorize base realignment and closures in 2017, the Army reported Wednesday.

“We must have authority from Congress to consolidate into our highest-value military bases and divest of low military value or under-utilized facilities,” Hammack said at a “Hot Topics” forum on installation management held March 31 in Washington.

“Today, facilities that are needed to support readiness, to support training exercises, airfields and other priorities are deteriorating because the resources are spent to support installations that could be closed.”

Hammack said another round of BRAC would initially cost $6 billion and would focus on the Army and the U.S. Air Force.

She told forum attendees that another focus area is to communicate how military bases support readiness, the report said.

She also cited the prioritization of projects and programs, creation of partnerships with the private sector and establishment of a model for installations as the other key areas that affect military installations.