The Obama Administration has made a continued effort to in-source work performed for the Federal Government. The thought behind this is that government contractors are more expensive than federal employees. In an effort to increase efficiency, the Obama administration has suggested that agencies in the Federal Government in-source some of the work that has historicallyRead… Read more »
Bay Area Rapid Transit (CA) directors held a special meeting last week to hear proposals for a cell-phone shutdown policy from a newly appointed citizens review panel. The action was in response to BART’s shutdown of cell-phone access at several stations in anticipation of a planned protest in August. One proposal called for requiring threeRead… Read more »
This week’s news of the absurdity of waste, fraud, and abuse across government comes from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Audit Division. Their report, titled Audit of Department of Justice Conference Planning and Food and Beverage Costs, is a follow-up to a previous September 2007 which examined expenditures forRead… Read more »
Florida is facing an investigation of its broadband expansion plan. The federal government has suspended a $30.1 million grant award to the North Florida Broadband Authority amidst allegations of poor supervision of the project and waste. Work has already been stopped on the project which was set to bring high-speed broadband to 14 Florida counties.Read… Read more »
Deltek Analyst Evan Halperin reports. Earlier this week, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy announced the signing of a contract between the state and Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS) for the highly-anticipated criminal justice information system (CJIS). Connecticut’s CJIS Governing Board has been planning this project since 2008, when the project was approved by the state’s generalRead… Read more »
Anticipating a spike in phone calls when it launches its new ConnectCard electronic fare system next year, the Port Authority of Allegheny County (PA) plans to add customer service representatives and is considering an interactive phone system. “When people become too frustrated for any reason, they’ll stop using public transportation,” said spokesman Jim Ritchie. “We’reRead… Read more »
I was just asked “should I take this class on social media.” Here’s my somewhat complex answer to what seems like a simple question. Like any new field, learning how to use social media well isn’t a matter of taking one class, but rather of learning a variety of skills and mental models, and thenRead… Read more »
In an effort to increase his office’s transparency, Governor Cuomo of New York launched a new transparency website today called CitizenConnects. The website is meant to provide information about the Governor’s activities and will also offer online townhalls and live chats with the Governor. The Governor will be holding weekly live chats through the websiteRead… Read more »
Deltek Sr. Analyst Chris Cotner reports. As part of our analysis of state IT budget data, Deltek has published vertical analyses and projections of health care, social services, justice, public safety, and homeland security. Also, we have published vertical IT budget analyses of some of the larger states (California, New York, Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio,Read… Read more »
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed new laws yesterday that are focused on the state’s health care system. The new rules will impose a 1% tax on all health care claims paid in the state and use that money to provide health care for low-income residents. A second bill makes the state eligible for $780 millionRead… Read more »