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Monday Morning Federal Newsstand

Written by Ruben Gomez Edited by Suzanne Kubota This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED: The Department of Justice has joined a whistleblower fraud c...

Federal News Network Staff

July 6, 2009 7:51 am

2 min read

Written by Ruben Gomez
Edited by Suzanne Kubota

This morning’s federal news as heard on WFED:

The Department of Justice has joined a whistleblower fraud case against contracting giant SAIC and two former Navy officials. The suit was filed by a former employee at the Naval Oceanographic Major Shared Resource Center. And it alleges that two former leaders of that agency conspired to steer a $3.2 billion dollar contract to SAIC. The Justice Department says the leaders shared sensitive solicitation information with the company that it did not share with other bidders. Now the suit also names subcontractors Lockheed Martin and Applied Enterprise Solutions, but Justice did not join the case against them.

About one in three White House workers are subject to that pay freeze President Obama announced shortly after taking office. The freeze applies to anyone making more than $100-thousand dollars. GovExec reports it affects 146 of the 487 employees on the White House payroll. President Obama cited the economy as a reason for halting pay raises. No word on whether he will lift the freeze next year.

The rough economy is not stopping feds from bucking the trend with charity.The Office of Personnel Management reports that federal employees donated a record $276-million dollars to the Combined Federal Campaign in 2008. Federal Times reports that’s almost $3-million more than in 2007. And the number represents six straight years of record pledges to CFC. Overall, American charities saw a 2-percent decline in donations last year.

Reforming government operations to boost productivity and efficiency could save up to $134-billion dollars annually. That finding is from a new report by management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. According to GovExec, the paper says that so far attempts to improve efficiency have failed to produce long-term savings. The report cites as examples the Bush administration’s competitive sourcing efforts and President Obama’s subsequent in-sourcing push. Among other things, it recommends the White House set a clear mandate for operational change and build up the skills and abilities of the federal workforce.

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