Information Technology Acquisition Advisory Council is not a well-known organization. It is a private forum of concerned persons who wanted to check the wastage of unproductive IT spending by the U.S. Government. At a recent gathering hosted by the American Center for Progress, a number of prominent former government officials were present.
The participants included former Defense Department Chief Information Officer John Grimes; former Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne; David R. Williamson, associate chief procurement officer at the Housing and Urban Development Department; and State Department procurement executive Corey Rindner. Their goal: To help develop a blueprint for how the White House can improve contracting and systems development to prevent billions of dollars annually from being wasted on failed projects.
The members want to change the federal IT ecosystem so that it focuses on results rather than reporting and compliance. They called for procurement rules to be revamped and for including stipulations to hold managers accountable for results.
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quite receptive to the ideas and is already initiating steps along these lines. A memo issued by the office on June 28 had ordered all federal agencies to halt all financial system projects until they are scaled back or scrapped, for example.
Read the news at NextGov website.
