Monthly Archives: April 2012

Recommencing

I am going to start blogging again. These are the rules of engagement. I will not and nor do I ever intend to, comment directly on anything government is or isn’t doing unless it is celebrating success where it is appropriate. I was a cheerleader for my old Council. I see no reason why IRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: House Subcommittee cracks down on the GSA

The House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on public buildings got serious with GSA officials yesterday, issuing threats if the agency doesn’t clean up its act. Members of the subcommittee claim they have been blocked from receiving budget figures, and Chairman Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) didn’t hide his frustration, saying: “Let me just issue a warning …Read… Read more »

Tax day gets less taxing via video–Will new IRS VTC pilot program work?

According to a recent article in Fierce Enterprise Communications, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is looking to provide support and a helping hand to Americans drowning in a sea of tax laws and paperwork. However, the IRS has limited resources, and obviously can’t be present to help every struggling American. It’s for this reason thatRead… Read more »

Wise Words from SwissMiss

Pardon me for being a little flustered – I met my design idol last week and am still a bit awestruck. Tina Roth Eisenberg, often referred to by her popular blog’s name, SwissMiss, is a designer, blogger, wife, mother, and the self-proclaimed “queen of accidental income,” living in Brooklyn by way of Switzerland (in caseRead… Read more »

How Mature is your Finance Organization?

How Mature is your Finance Organization? By Steve Watson, CPA, CGFM IBM Public Sector Financial Management In 2005, I published a whitepaper upon the 15th Anniversary of the CFO Act entitled Federal Financial Management, The End of the Beginning (http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/imc/pdf/wp-cfo-act.pdf). In that paper, I included a Financial Management Maturity Model reproduced in the table below.Read… Read more »

An Improving Economy Could Mean Loss of Employees. Will They Stay or Will They Go?

When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees’ remuneration package. In the case of the public sector can, orRead… Read more »

Snip-Snip … More Pay & Benefits Cuts

Posted in the 4/17/2012 edition of FedSmith, Ian Smith shared the Senate’s Budget Committee’s plan. Speaking on the plan, the committee chairman said he would “begin a Budget Committee markup of a long-term budget for the nation. As my Chairman’s Mark, I will lay down the bipartisan Fiscal Commission plan, also known as the Bowles-SimpsonRead… Read more »

Aligning Margins And Performance At DoD

Stan Soloway, president and chief executive officer of the Professional Services Council (PSC), wrote a piece recently about the issues defense contractors face and the tough times that lay ahead for industry as the federal budgets continue to shift and shrink. Mr. Soloway’s piece was in conjunction with the PSC’s recent Marketview 2012 conference, andRead… Read more »

WayIn for Human Resources

Way-In enables real-time crowd sourcing of opinion (in a fun way) If you have not yet checked out WayIn, you might want to head over there right now. WayIn allows you to post quick polls and quickly crowd source opinion. While it is still a small service, they have big goals (and the back-end toRead… Read more »