The Obama Administration is launching a new aggregated database and online tool intended to help federal agencies identify and prevent duplicate or improper payments.
Called Do Not Pay, the new tool will attempt to make it easier for agencies to avoid sending funds out to dead people or entering into contracts with companies who have attempted to defraud the government. Keep reading →
When it comes to carrying out the work of the federal government, few initiatives have held greater promise or importance than the Senior Executive Service.
Commissioned by Congress more than three decades ago, the SES program was envisioned as a way to attract and develop an elite corps of America’s highest caliber executives and deploy them across the federal government to address both immediate and longer term management needs within federal agencies. Keep reading →
I saw the Tweets this morning about Aneesh Chopra “stepping down” based on a FedScoop article posted at midnight last night. Seems like a lot happens after normal business hours in this town.
I thought the most interesting words in the article were: “No information was provided on his future plans, but ongoing speculation includes running for political office to assuming an executive role leading the Washington offices of a major technology company,” writes Luke Fretwell in the article, which cites unnamed sources.
Then around noon the Washington Post just broke the story: Aneesh Chopra leaving the White House, likely to run for Virginia lieutenant governor, but said Chopra did not return requests for comment. (More on the story here.)
Chopra was part of a trio of D.C.-area tech and business heavyweights tapped by Obama at the start of his term to address government management and technological concerns. In the span of a few days in 2009, Obama named Chopra, Virginia’s former secretary of technology, to oversee the government’s tech upgrades, Jeffrey Zients, a D.C.-area business veteran, to serve as the first White House chief performance officer (Zients is now acting director of the Office of Management and Budget), and Vivek Kundra, a former District government official, who stepped down in June after serving as the first White House chief information officer, to go to Harvard briefly and and then recently joined Salesforce.com.
One of the White House’s leading forces for innovation, and the nation’s first formally appointed chief technology officer, Aneesh Chopra, is stepping down from his position, the White House confirmed today.
The Washington Post is reporting Chopra is expected to announce that he will run for lieutenant governor in Virginia, “according to Democrats familiar with his plan, but not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.” News of Chopra’s expected departure was initially reported by FedScoop. Keep reading →
The proposed realignment of federal agencies announced by the Obama administration would be more extensive than first announced last Friday, affecting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology among other agencies, according to a report today by Federal Computer Week.
Office of Management and Budget’s Jeffrey Zients, who earlier today was named OMB acting director, told reporters during a briefing Jan. 13, that there would be a second phase of the proposed reorganization. In the initial announcement, the White House proposed a realignment that called for merging six trade agencies into a new, cabinet-level agency to promote export and business development. Keep reading →
When the Senior Executive Service was established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, the vision was as lofty as it was pragmatic.
The government of the United States needed to attract and employ a pool of the highest quality management executives available. And it needed a better system for holding those executives more uniformly accountable for their individual and organizational performance.
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This story was updated at midday to incorporate additional comments, analysis and links. For more news and insights on innovations at work in government, please sign up for the AOL Gov newsletter. For the quickest updates, follow us on Twitter @AOLgov
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Federal technology followers are still taking stock of the White House’s choice 
to be the next federal chief information officer, Steven VanRoekel.
While a surprise choice to many in the government IT community, VanRoekel, 41, is a familiar face in the Obama administration. Keep reading →