(Washington, D.C.) – The nation’s premier watchdog group, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW), today raised questions for members of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management to ask at tomorrow’s hearing on the President’s plan to eliminate wasteful spending in information technology.  Last June, Peter Orszag, then-director of the Office of Management and Budget, posted on his blog three recommendations to “advance IT reform.”  Tomorrow’s hearing is intended to determine what actions have been taken since then to streamline IT projects, review the highest risk IT projects across the federal government, and develop recommendations to improve IT procurement and management practices.

“Ever since the Grace Commission found in 1984 that the average age of a government computer was 6.7 years while the average age in the private sector was three years, as well as finding dozens of incompatible accounting and financial systems throughout the federal government, CAGW has been leading the way to improve the efficiency of the procurement and deployment of information technology systems in Washington,” said CAGW President Tom Schatz.  “There have been dozens of initiatives to improve the government’s purchases and deployments of computer systems, yet many problems remain.  As one example, the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) ‘High Risk List,’ released in February, 2011, cited ongoing weaknesses in IT management and procurement at several departments and agencies, including the Department of Defense.  The government has adopted a ‘cloud-first’ approach to IT, which raises questions about leaping forward when past problems have not yet been resolved.”

CAGW asked subcommittee members to pose the following questions, among others, to the panelists, which include Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra and GAO Director of Information Technology Management Issues David Powner. 

What has been done to improve upon prior efforts to streamline information technology projects?  Which federal agencies have the highest risk projects and which have employed best practices in IT procurement and management?  What concerns do you have about moving agencies to the cloud “first” when there are ongoing questions regarding past IT projects?  Which companies and which products are certified under the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA)?  Are you aware of any claims by any company that its products are certified under FISMA when they have not received such a designation?  Would it be a violation of the False Claims Act to make such an assertion during a contract negotiation and then be awarded a contract based on that claim?  As one example of this problem, the Department of Justice found that Google Apps for Government does not have FISMA certification despite Google’s claim that its product is so certified, and was making that claim from June-December of 2010.  Will you be investigating whether any contracts were awarded based on any claims by Google or any other company that a product is FISMA-certified when it has no certification? 

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.