The General Services Administration is redesigning its Office of Citizen Services and Communications, the division responsible for the agency's public-facing websites and information, to include a technology-focused office.
The new Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies will be responsible for identifying new tech strategies to improve service. Dave McClure will remain associate administrator, and Sanjeev Bhagowalia, currently the chief information officer at the Interior Department, will start as deputy associate administrator for innovative technology on Monday.
The Office of Communications and Marketing will split off from the new OCSIT.
"The exciting thing is leveraging technology across government," said GSA spokeswoman Caren Auchman. "It will help us focus that and advance our responsibility to transparency and open government."
COMMENTS
Based on my firms' interaction with DOI, we're in total agreement with you. Unfortuantely, for small businesses, he's now at GSA. Jack, aren't Gov't jobs great? You never get fired, just transfered.
Steve D 05/28/10 02:36 pm ET
Wait a sec... They are bringing Bhagowalia to GSA to run GSA IT offerings?? From the DOI IG's 2009 report it is CLEAR that he is NOT an effective CIO!!! This is very concerning as GSA is on the hook for several high priority initiatives. If this is the type of "thought leader" they are bringing in, perhaps we'd be better off without....
http://www.doioig.gov/uploadPDF/FY09InformationTechnologySecurity.pdf
"The Department's annual budget for information technology (IT) is approximately $1 billion, which funds a significant existing infrastructure of networks, hardware, and software programs. The Department's systems and data are used to manage its business processes, provide the public information on national parks, grazing rights permits, and royalty collections, among other things; and to monitor wildland fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic activity.
The Department continues to employ a decentralized and fragmented IT governance structure that fails to comply fully with legislation and federal policy.
Bureau and office resistance to Departmental guidance and weak Departmental oversight have left the Department struggling to meet information security and privacy mandates. The inadequate oversight does not result from a lack of technology oversight is inadequate even when appropriate technology exists. For example, we found that the Department failed to perform adequate information security inspections throughout the entire fiscal year.
Although the Department continues to provide additional resources for information security, mandatory federal guidance goes unimplemented. The Federal Information Security Management Act of2002 (FISMA) requires the Secretary of the Interior to delegate to the Department Chief Information Officer (CIO) "the authority to ensure compliance with the requirements imposed on the agency under this subchapter." However, we routinely found guidance issued by the Department CIO was not implemented .
In May 2005, the Department CIO directed all bureaus and offices to transition their network management to the Department by December 31,2005. Furthermore, in November 2006, the Department CIO directed that the Department procure all network services and equipment. In FY 2009, however, we found hundreds of network circuits still operating outside the purview of the Department.
In August 2006, the Department CIO directed all bureaus and offices to transition to the Department's remote access system by January 31,2007. However, in FY 2009, we found many bureaus still operating their own, separate, remote access systems.
Further, our evaluations showed that the Department has not uniformly implemented security controls to protect its networks and data. Many chief information security officers fail to meet minimum qualifications, as defined by Departmental policy, and many personnel remain underqualified.
FISMA requires the Department's CIO to "oversee personnel with significant responsibilities for information security." In FY 2008, we warned that "the Department has seemingly delegated performance of significant information security duties to personnel who are likely ill-prepared to perform the task." In FY 2009, we again found numerous examples of unqualified people performing significant information security duties.
During 2009, we reviewed progress in implementing recommendations we made in 2007 to improve information security. Our reviews revealed that bureaus and offices had exaggerated many ofthe progress updates they provided to the Department. Moreover, we found the Department did not verify the bureau and office claims of progress or resolution. Further, BLM and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) have made little progress, while the National Business Center has made good progress in this regard. In all, nearly one-third of our FY 2007 recommendations remain unresolved. Neither the Department nor bureaus offered an explanation for not addressing the unresolved recommendations."
Personally, Bhagowalia is not my flavor for a high profile CIO/IT Guy. He must have connections that pulled him out of DOI before the next IG audit hit!
Jack 05/24/10 11:42 am ET
Great move! Long over due. The next step is to consolidate all of GSA's marketing efforts under the one Marketing and Communications umbrella.
S Mial 05/24/10 09:45 am ET