VA Delays A Factor in Deaths – Plus the 7 Gov Stories

On GovLoop Insights’ DorobekINSIDER:

• You and I know that government does remarkable work — work that changes the way the world works, work that saves lives, work that finds cures for diseases and protects our borders. Something needs to change. We need to find a way to honor public servants. Just like Bogart told Bacall in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” We need to say cheers to public servants. One organization making the effort to highlight government innovation is the Partnership for Public Service. We take a look at the Service to America Medals.

You can find all of our programs online: DorobekINSIDER.com and GovLoop Insights at http://insights.govloop.com.

The SEVEN stories that impact your life

1. Dayton Daily News: Delay in treatment’ a factor in more than 100 deaths at VA centers – “As controversy swirls around the Veterans Administration over deaths caused by delayed care, an investigation by the Dayton Daily News found that the VA settled many cases that appear to be related to delays in treatment.”

2. Federal Times: GSA awards long-awaited OASIS contract – “The General Services Administration has awarded its 10-year, multibillion dollar OASIS contract to 74 companies, according to an agency announcement.”

3. Federal Times: 5 Chinese military officials under U.S. indictments for cyber espionage – “The United States has indicted five Chinese military officials accused of hacking U.S. networks and stealing information, a move that represents the first legal swipe against international cyber theft.”

4. Government Executive: Would a TSP-for-All Constitute Government Overreach? – “Policy experts have given mixed reviews to a proposal to open the Thrift Savings Plan to all Americans, with some conservative groups fearing an increased role for the federal government.”

5. FCW: Can the federal government get its IT groove back? – “In the wake of the HealthCare.gov debacle and a rash of security breaches across what was once thought to be among the most secure networks on earth, the U.S. government is becoming better known for its IT failures than its successes — and that needs to change, according to the chairmen of ACT-IAC’s Management of Change conference.”

6. Washington Post: Senators say work on 2020 Census is far behind schedule – “Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are taking a proactive view of their oversight of the next census, which is still six years away. What they see worries them — a massive undertaking a year behind schedule.”

7. Federal News Radio: Agencies rev up for 2014 Feds Feed Families food drive – “Over the past five years, federal agencies have collected 24 million pounds of donated food and other non-perishable items during the annual Feds Feed Families drive. June 1 will kick off the sixth annual campaign in which federal employees give their time and donated goods to aid families struggling to put food on the table.”

DorobekINSIDER water-cooler fodder… yes, we’re trying to help you make your water-cooler time better too…

• Life after email at DoD [C4ISR] Still using email? You might already be behind the curve. Despite the fact that the Defense Department is well into a broad transition to defense enterprise email – with the Army fully migrated, the Air Force partially moved and several Pentagon executive offices on board – at least one top defense official believes email is on its way out. However, that does not mean it’s already known what comes after email. “I’m not sure what the medium is going to be, that’s what we’ve got to build now,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronnie Hawkins, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency. “But I’d suggest if we’re still using email [in five years], I think that from a collaborative perspective and also from a social media perspective, that’s not the right means.”

• Steve Kelman in Federal Computer Week: VA waiting lists and performance measurement: The VA’s cheating, if it occurred, happened in the context of the department’s performance measurement system, which collects data about various aspects of the performance of VA hospitals for the purpose of using it to improve how well the hospitals serve patients. What are the implications, then, of cheating for how we look at the increasingly widespread use of performance measurement to manage in government? The strongest critics — and they are not a tiny group — would argue that situations like this show that government should not be using performance measures at all. That argument does not make any more sense than it would to argue that Enron or any other accounting scandal meant profit should no longer be used as a performance measure for businesses.

• PublicCIO oped by Andy Blumenthal (@totalcio): Can Thinking Like Tech Gurus Help Win Back Respect of the People? Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital, and the regular people from around the country are laughing, mocking it. Living in Maryland, and working for the federal government, I appreciate the importance of the mission of the agencies that I’ve worked for, the challenges to keep America safe and cutting-edge, and the generally smart, dedicated people I work with. Well, what happened?

• Innovations That Matter: Engaging the Digital Citizen [New GovLoop Guide]