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OPENING
AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Karen Evans, CIO Council Vice Chair welcomed everyone to the
meeting.
Norm Lorentz,
OMB provided a special thanks to Marty Wagner and GSA for
the hospitality and coordination of the IRMCO conference.
KEY DATES – BUDGET PROCESS REVIEW
Dan Chenok, OMB/OIRA reviewed the FY2005 Draft Budget Schedule:
- 9/8/03
– FY2005 Budget requests from agencies (including
IT exhibits) need to be submitted to OMB
- 9/22/03
– FISMA and PIA need to be submitted to OMB
- Mid
– Late October – IT Cross-cut need to be completed
- October
- November – OMB analysis continues
- Late
November – early December – Passback and Appeals
outlined
- December
- January – Continue Budget Writing
- Mid
January – Agency updates of IT budget exhibits to
reflect the President’s Decisions
- Usually
1st Tuesday in February – Release of the President’s
FY2005 Budget
WORLDCOM
Sandra Bates and George Barkley with the GSA FTS Program provided
an overview on the status of WorldCom and the Telecom industry.
In 1999 FTS2001 awarded an 8-year contact to WorldCom, with
4 base years and 4 1-year options. The 1st option year has
been issued, but the 2nd option year is currently in question
due to the status of the suspension. The telecom industry;
which includes dial tone, voice communication, critical data
systems and data transmissions; is dysfunctional now, and
is chartering new territory.
WorldCom
has been suspended from working in the Federal Government
leading to a potential debarment. WorldCom had the opportunity
to meet with GSA officials and contest the suspension by presenting
a plan to fix the accounting and ethics deficiencies. WorldCom
did not meet with GSA, rather they intend to submit a written
plan and provide a presentation at the end of September to
identify how they plan to rectify their two operating issues:
1.
lack of Accounting controls, and
2. ethics program / plan.
WorldCom
and the Government are in agreement on what issues need to
be corrected.
Under
the terms of the suspension, WorldCom is obligated to provide
existing levels of services until January 2004. In addition,
WorldCom can still accept orders for new work from Agencies
as long as a Waiver is approved. GSA is reviewing all modifications
to orders with WorldCom and is making Waiver decisions on
a case-by-case basis. Agencies requesting a Waiver must submit
a business case pointing out both business and mission impact,
and leadership/political backing for review and approval.
GSA is continuing their assessment of WorldCom, and will make
the determination to exercise the 2nd option year with WorldCom
in January.
Council
members voiced concern over the possibility that WorldCom
would be debarred from working in Government. Members feel
that the impact could effect the Government more so that impacting
WorldCom. GSA FTS jointly with the CIO Council will assess
impact statements received from agencies to determine the
best viable outcome. GSA FTS needs to determine what possible
options are to ensure continual telecom service, considering:
- None
of the existing telecom carriers have the bandwidth to support
a transition at this time
- None
of the telecom companies are eager to transition services
from WorldCom
- A
contingency could last as long as 2-years – how can
reengineering and budget assessments help?
Sandra
Bates explained the difference between a suspension and debarment:
- Suspension
– the company affected cannot do business with Government
for an interim period of time while a resolution is pursued.
- Debarment
- the company affected cannot do business with Government
for a specific period of time.
Sprint
is also under review by GSA related to a billing dispute with
DOJ. GSA is currently reviewing information related to Sprint
contracts for potential suspension and disbarment. Sprint
is aggressively working through the issues with the Federal
Government and will likely settle without suspension.
SECURITY
Van Hitch, DOJ, discussed the unprecedented number of incidents
occurring in both the Public and Private sectors recently.
Although the Government has fared better than the Private
sector in recent attacks, there is room to improve. The rate
of incidents is nearly doubling annually, and the Government
wants to be proactive and take strategic action to limit occurrences.
FedCIRC
is the federal government's focal point for computer security
and incident reporting. They provide assistance with incident
prevention and response. In collaboration with FedCIRC, Van
performed an analysis of incident reporting in the Government
in FY2002. There was no correlation between the number of
incidents reported to FedCIRC, and the number of incidents
identified in the GISRA report. Following NIST guidelines,
FedCIRC is developing a more disciplined process for reporting
incidents and will review recommendations with OMB before
rolling it out.
A key
to managing incidents is patch management. OMB issued a memo
in April 2003 that recommended agencies implement the FedCIRC
patch management tool. The Government realizes that there
are not enough licenses available and is working to rectify
this outstanding issue.
Van is
developing a questionnaire that will be distributed to Agency
CIOs in the near future. The questionnaire will allow CIOs
to identify areas of security concern, and areas in which
FedCIRC can help.
SMARTBUY
An Overview of the SmartBUY program was provided to attendees.
IT WORKFORCE SURVEY
Ira Hobbs, Agriculture, provided an overview and status of
the IT Workforce Survey. Clinger Cohen and the E-Government
Act require that agencies complete an annual survey on Workforce
and Human Capital in IT. The IT Workforce Survey that is ongoing
will allow agencies to meet the stated requirements.
The Survey
is currently active, and will be available to collect responses
until September 22nd. In addition, all federal unions were
sent a memo to increase awareness of the survey and its intended
purpose. A Point of Contact was identified for each agency
is available on the CIO Council website. The individual named
as the POC has the ability to see the response levels within
their particular agency. Currently, DoD is out in the lead
as of September 4th with the most responses.
Dagne
Folcher was recognized for all her hard work in getting the
survey online.
OTHER TOPICS
The members discussed the topic for the upcoming Full Council
meeting later in September. The Council agreed to continue
discussion of the E-Government migration outstanding issues
and delay the IPv6 presentation and discussion until a later
date.
Norm Lorentz
announced he will be leaving his position in Government to
work in the private sector effective September 20th. Until
then, he will be forging ahead on existing initiatives.
The E-Travel
contract was recently awarded to Northrup Grumann and Carlson
Wagonlit Travel. EDS is protesting the award.
The CIO
Council welcomes the new Deputy CIO at the Department of Interior
– David Shearer.
Several
suggestions were made for upcoming meetings:
- Have
more informal meetings within the CIO community to discuss
issues and ideas
- Increase
collaboration with CFO Council and other interagency Councils
and groups
- Have
a CIO from within the community present an initiative or
best practice to the group
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