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MPs want to take a closer look at how institutions handle improper payments

Harry November 1, 2024

Top lawmakers on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are asking government watchdogs to take a closer look at how agencies deal with improper payments. They are asking the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to examine what agencies are doing to prevent improper payments and whether they have access to the right data to do that job. Agencies saw a surge in improper payments at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic while distributing nearly $5 trillion in emergency aid. GAO estimates that the federal government earned more than $200 billion in improper payments in fiscal year 2023.
Following false claims that FEMA has withheld aid to hurricane victims, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is offering support to the local federal workforce. The union representing FEMA workers said the threats harmed workers’ mental health and well-being. AFGE encourages FEMA workers to report immediate threats to their supervisors and call 911 if they feel unsafe. The union is also reminding the feds of available resources for stress management and mental health services.
The State Department sees more hiring as a key feature of its modernization agenda. The Department has increased its Civil Service workforce by more than 20% in the last three years. This is the largest hiring increase in decades. The State Department is also hiring some of the largest classes of new State Department civil servants seen in 10 years. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the department needs a more efficient hiring process and a budget deal from Congress for the rest of the fiscal year to close the staffing gap.
The Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) board of directors added three new members. The board added U.S. Postal Service CIO Pritha Mehra and Katherine Sickbert, deputy director for technology strategy and monetary affairs at the Federal Reserve Board, as permanent members. It also added Matt Montaño, associate CIO of the National Park Service, as an alternate member. The seven-member TMF Board, led by federal CIO Clare Martorana, is reviewing proposals and managing investments that will help accelerate the agency’s IT modernization projects.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) has appointed its chief artificial intelligence officer. Mark Munsell will serve as NGA’s chief artificial intelligence officer. He will take on this role in addition to serving as head of the agency’s data and digital innovation directorate. Munsell has already played a pivotal role in pioneering key NGA AI programs such as Maven. The geospatial agency focuses on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to derive insights from massive amounts of overhead imagery and other data. NGA recently launched a pilot program to accredit GEOINT AI models to ensure their reliability, safety and reliability.
The head of the National Archives and Records Administration is reminding agency leaders to keep an eye on federal records legislation through presidential passage. Their responsibilities under the Federal Records Act,” National Archivist Colleen Shogan wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to agency leaders. Records management becomes increasingly important during transitions, he said. Agency leaders should work with records staff to ensure departing employees are aware of record retention requirements, he says.
Six federal contractors face bid-rigging, kickback and bribery charges. A federal grand jury in Baltimore indicted six individuals for their roles in bid-rigging, defrauding the government and schemes to pay bribes and kickbacks in connection with the sale of IT products and services to federal government buyers. The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division and Procurement Collusion Strike Force alleged that the defendants’ actions resulted in millions of dollars in overcharges to the Department of Defense and other agencies. The executives used their positions to learn sensitive, confidential procurement information and developed bids to artificially set non-competitive and non-independent prices to win bids, the DoJ said. These are the first charges in the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into IT manufacturers, distributors and resellers.
Many organizations have difficulty recruiting and retaining, but in large areas of the United States it is much more difficult. In Hawaii, Alaska and the U.S. territories, agencies face greater challenges recruiting and retaining the federal workforce. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office found that these areas have particular difficulty using wage incentives and encouraging job seekers to apply to USAJobs. These challenges could also have ripple effects, according to GAO official Dawn Locke. “Not only can this create a huge burden that can have a huge impact on existing employees and increased workloads, but it can also have an impact on customer service and customer experience,” Locke said in an interview.
The solicitation for the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Enterprise Transportation Management two-point oh contract will be published by the end of November. The contract is planned to be awarded in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. The contract will support the Pentagon’s daily operation, infrastructure and maintenance of its networks. ETM 2.0 is a general purchase agreement and a small business set aside. The estimated value of the contract will range from $100 million to $250 million.
The Department of Defense’s pilot program now covers 51 medical conditions that previously disqualified them from military service. The medical attendance records pilot allows recruits with medically disqualifying conditions to join the service without a waiver. The goal of the pilot is to understand how quickly the department can process applicants who meet those requirements, said Katie Helland, the undersecretary’s military accession policy director for personnel and readiness. “Overall, we are seeing positive results and will continue to monitor the data to make decisions about these conditions as to whether we can include them in our standard orders.”