Countdown: Gov reorg, crackdown on improper payments

Host Francis Rose counts down the top federal news stories of the week with Dan Chenok of the IBM Center for the Business of Government and Bob Suda of Suda and...

Today’s guests:
Dan Chenok,Senior Fellow, IBM Center for The Business of Government
Bob Suda, President, Suda and Associates

Dan Chenok’s stories
#3 OPM Defines IT Program Managers
From NextGov:

Program management is classified as an official career field for federal information technology positions in a new draft proposal issued by the Office of Personnel Management.

The draft standard defines IT program management as “work that involves managing one or more large information technology program(s) to provide products and/or services.”

#2 Cyberattacks against federal networks were up 40 percent in 2010
From NextGov:

The number of attacks against federal networks increased nearly 40 percent last year, while the number of incidents targeting U.S. computers overall was down roughly 1 percent for the same period, according to a new White House report to Congress on federal computer security.

#1 OMB to make reorg recommendations by June 30
From Federal News Radio:

The Office of Management and Budget is modeling phase one of its government reorganization effort after the SAVE Awards.

Jeff Zients, OMB’s deputy director for management and chief performance officer, today said the reorganization office, which he co-leads with Lisa Brown, reached out last week to all federal employees by email asking for ideas to improve export and trade agencies and their overlapping missions.

Bob Suda’s stories
#3 Saving the goverment a million here, a million there and more
From Washington Post:

SAVE is one of those terms that sounds like someone came up with a smart acronym, then searched for words to fit it. It stands for Securing Americans’ Value and Efficiency — a bureaucratic mouthful. The shorter version also is appropriate, because federal employees recommended more than 18,000 ways Uncle Sam can save money through the SAVE program. About 20 were incorporated into Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal 2012. The Office of Management and Budget expects the ideas to save $867.5 million through 2015.

#2 Cracking down on improper payments requires a fine balance, panelists say
From Government Executive:

The government faces a challenging task in preventing and recovering improper payments while simultaneously ensuring that money is disbursed in a timely manner to those entitled to it, a panel of federal officials said on Wednesday.

#1 After hack, security of RSA SecurID tokens in the hands of customers
From Government Computer News:

In the wake of last week’s security breach that apparently compromised information about RSA SecurID, the company has temporarily halted distribution of the token used for two-factor authentication and warned customers to take addition precautions to secure information about tokens now in use.

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