Yet another Navy official pleads guilty to accepting bribes from Glenn Defense Marine Asia

The Federal Headlines is a daily compilation of the stories you hear discussed on Federal Drive with Tom Temin.

In today’s Top Federal Headlines, the Defense Department appoints a senior Navy official to serve as its new deputy chief information officer.

• Another Navy official has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes tied to foreign contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia. The Justice Department said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Gentry Debord admitted to accepting cash, hotel stays, and prostitutes from GDMA in exchange for providing inside information to the company’s CEO Leonard Francis. Debord is scheduled to be sentenced in January. (Department of Justice)

• The Defense Department has appointed a senior Navy official to serve as its new deputy chief information officer Dr. John Zangardi has spent more than 30 years in the Navy — both in and out of uniform — most recently as the deputy assistant secretary overseeing IT, communications, intelligence and space systems. He very quietly became the principal deputy DoD chief information officer on Oct. 2, according to an updated bio the Defense Department posted on its website. Zangardi replaces Dave DeVries, who left the Pentagon in August to become the CIO at the Office of Personnel Management. (Department of Defense)

• The Air Force is reconsidering some of its personnel policies in order to attract talent to the service in future years. It’s planning a pilot matchmaker type service for airmen and employment positions. The program will allow airmen to put in qualitative data about themselves that otherwise would be left out of their military file. The hope is that the process will connect airmen with jobs they enjoy and fulfill requirements at the same time. (Federal News Radio)

• Hispanics made up 8.5 percent of the federal workforce in 2015. That’s a 0.1 percent bump over 2014’s numbers. It’s the sixth year in a row Hispanic employment numbers rose just a tenth of percentage point. Office of Personnel Management leaders aren’t satisfied, especially since the number of Hispanics in senior executive positions stayed flat between 2014 and 2015. (Federal News Radio)

• President Obama and the Office of Personnel Management have updated the Combined Federal Campaign program. In an executive order, Obama said Federal retirees will now be able to participate in the CFC, even by donating through their monthly annuity payments. Also, employees who volunteer with charitable organizations can now have that time count towards CFC goals. (The White House)

• The IRS may have broken some acquisition rules in moving to a new enterprise-wide email system. The Treasury IG for Tax Administration found in a new report issued yesterday that the agency spent $12 million on email subscriptions that it could not use. Auditors said the IRS may have violated the bona fide needs rule when it purchased the subscriptions using 2014 and 2015 appropriations and did not deploy the software in those years. The IG also said the IRS violated acquisition regulations by not using full and open competition to buy these email subscriptions. (Treasury Department)

• The Office of Management and Budget prepares for updated IT systems. Federal CIO Tony Scott said general guidance is nearly ready to help agencies present ideas on how to update their IT systems. The guidance can be tailored if and when congress approves money for the modernization fund. (Federal News Radio)

• Three House committee chairmen have accused the Justice Department of going easy on the EPA. House Oversight Chairman and Interior Subcommittee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), along with Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT), wrote a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch to ask why DoJ is refusing to press charges against the Environmental Protection Agency over the Gold King Mine spill in Colorado. (Rep. Jason Chaffetz)

• If you want something in a contract, ask for it. It may seem obvious, but too often, program or contracting people aren’t explicit enough in what they ask of vendors. Or from the staff of a government-wide acquisition contract. That’s according to Joanne Woytek, long-time program manager for the NASA SEWP vehicle. She told an AFCEA audience, be specific about the things that matter to you. If not, contractors will figure it out for themselves.

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