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Baker taking his own advice to improve Veterans Affairs

November 12, 2009 - 11:15am

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Nov. 12, 2009 -- Roger Baker went from the "ultimate consultant" to the Veterans Affairs Department during the Presidential transition to the implementor of the consultants' advice.

Baker, the VA assistant secretary for information and technology and chief information officer, says his work on the transition team led him to his role and helped him understand the areas where the department needs the most help.

Baker has nine departmentwide priorities with customer service at the top of his list and cybersecurity a very close second.

This is one of the main reasons Baker credits his experience as a CEO in the private sector as more important than his experience as CIO at the Commerce Department or with General Dynamics IT.

But that doesn't mean Baker will not get his hands dirty fixing the technology issues at VA. He says his office has made a list of more than 1,000 programs that will be prioritized over the next few months. Some of those programs may end, or merged or given new life.

Baker says stopping projects all together is much more difficult than temporarily halting work on them and VA still is working on the acquisition issues.

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