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VA procurement and security clearance processing land on GAO’s high-risk list

The Veterans Affairs Department suffers from “fundamental management weaknesses and is one of the most challenged in the federal government,” Comptroller General Gene Dodaro told a Senate panel recently.

Leadership instability, high-level vacancies and a lack of accountability are all problems at the sprawling, decentralized VA, which appears three times on the newly released biennial list of high-risk programs compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie “has a plan but there’s not a lot of detail” for implementing GAO recommendations in such areas as the department’s outdated procurement system that relies too heavily on expensive emergency procurements, Dodaro said.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2019/03/va-procurement-and-security-clearance-processing-land-gaos-high-risk-list/155354

 

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Massive Pentagon agency lost track of hundreds of millions of dollars

One of the Pentagon’s largest agencies can’t account for hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of spending, a leading accounting firm says in an internal audit obtained by POLITICO that arrives just as President Donald Trump is proposing a boost in the military budget.

Ernst & Young found that the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) failed to properly document more than $800 million in construction projects, just one of a series of examples where it lacks a paper trail for millions of dollars in property and equipment. Across the board, its financial management is so weak that its leaders and oversight bodies have no reliable way to track the huge sums it’s responsible for, the firm warned in its initial audit of the massive Pentagon purchasing agent.

The audit raises new questions about whether the Defense Department can responsibly manage its $700 billion annual budget — let alone the additional billions that Trump plans to propose this month. The department has never undergone a full audit despite a congressional mandate — and to some lawmakers, the messy state of the Defense Logistics Agency’s books indicates one may never even be possible.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/05/pentagon-logistics-agency-review-funds-322860

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Grassley: DoD audit plan ‘doomed to failure’

At least since the passage of the 1990 CFO Act, Congress has been hounding the Defense Department and every other federal agency to get their books into a condition that can be scrutinized by outside auditors.

But now that it’s finally come time for DoD —the lone holdout — to actually conduct the first full-scope audit in its history, at least one senator thinks it would be a terrible idea for the department to follow though with that plan, because the Pentagon simply isn’t ready.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has long been a critic of the department’s failure to achieve audit readiness, but also believes that trying to force one through now would be a monumental waste of time and money, since literally no one expects the department to earn a clean opinion on the audit that’s scheduled to get underway next fiscal year.

The costs, he told colleagues on the Senate floor on Sept. 12th, far outweigh the benefits.

Keep reading this article at: https://federalnewsradio.com/defense-main/2017/09/grassley-dod-audit-plan-doomed-to-failure/

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The path to better management of government’s huge programs

With the enactment of the Program Management Improvement and Accountability Act late last year, the federal government has the opportunity and mandate to address two long-standing challenges: delivering successfully on large-scale change initiatives and addressing the dearth of well-qualified program managers across executive branch agencies.

For a government that operates through the execution of programs — many of them large and complex — such gaps represent enormous risk.

Even in a modular, agile world, the role of program managers remains essential, because change initiatives are more likely to cross multiple organizations. After all, the federal government manages more than $3 trillion in annual budgets and hundreds of huge programs critical to the nation and its citizens.

But the federal landscape remains littered with what Peat-Marwick once dubbed “runaway systems” — projects that are over budget, behind schedule and failing to deliver promised benefits and functionality. Thanks to the PMIAA, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now has the responsibility to implement a set of policies to improve program management in government. As the Trump administration takes shape, OMB should leverage this opportunity to increase the probability of successfully delivering on its initiatives.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.govexec.com/excellence/promising-practices/2017/04/path-better-management-governments-huge-programs/136848

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A plan to make procurement great again?

Why would the Hillary Clinton campaign’s final procurement policy paper be of interest these days?

In part because a couple of the memo’s co-authors believe its ideas might appeal to the Donald Trump administration.

making-procurement-great-againThe Clinton campaign paper obtained be Bloomberg BNA, titled “Transforming Procurement,” was authored by a group of 13 acquisition experts, including several who worked in the Barack Obama and Bill Clinton administrations. The paper pitches ideas that would make the federal procurement process more efficient, transparent and open to creative thinking.

Two of the co-authors say the paper includes several government reform recommendations that might also interest Trump and his incoming acquisition team — and, by extension, federal contractors.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.bna.com/clinton-campaign-wouldve-n73014449141/

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