Juggling act worries federal CIOs

Senior government officials are putting a higher priority on electronic government than they did a year ago, but they are walking a tightrope to balance the twin tasks of developing e-government and beefing up the security of their IT systems, recent studies show.Seventy-six percent of government officials interviewed said investing tax dollars in making information and services available over the Internet should be a very high or high priority, according to the Council for Excellence in Government's 2001 survey of citizen and government attitudes toward e-government, published Feb. 26. Sixty-nine percent made the same statement in 2000.Government officials identified the two biggest obstacles in developing e-government as a lack of financial resources (44 percent) and security issues (28 percent). These twin concerns were also highlighted in a survey of federal chief information officers published in February by the Information Technology Association of America, Arlington, Va. The CIOs expressed concern about their ability to improve IT security and roll out e-government at the same time. The Bush administration has emphasized both IT security and e-government as it works to improve government management and increase homeland security in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11."The CIOs appear to express [difficulty] in trying to keep both security and the e-government initiatives moving forward with limited resources," said Al Pesachowitz, director of information technology and management consulting, civilian sector, for Chicago management consulting firm Grant Thornton LLP. Pesachowitz was chairman of ITAA's CIO survey task group.In the past, the CIOs' emphasis has been on e-government, with security supporting and enabling e-government. Now, the CIOs indicate they need to fix security problems first, Pesachowitz said, noting that this change is not unexpected. Officials throughout government are working to protect the nation from terrorism, and a major part of that is ensuring the security of government information systems. The CIOs' heightened concerns aren't necessarily a bad sign, however, said Patricia McGinnis, president and chief executive officer of the Council for Excellence in Government in Washington."I think that's a sign we are on the verge of serious [e-government] implementation. People really start thinking about dollars when they are ready to go," she said.The Bush administration has helped alleviate the CIOs' concerns with its e-government strategy report and the president's fiscal 2003 budget request, said Mayi Canales, deputy chief information officer at the Treasury Department and an ITAA survey participant.The e-government strategy, published Feb. 27, established incremental deadlines for the administration's 24 e-government initiatives and defined the management structure over the initiatives. The budget request, delivered to Congress Feb. 4, included a boost in IT spending, from $45 billion in fiscal 2002 to $52 billion in 2003, with much of the increase focused on improving government security and increasing information sharing between government entities. The administration also requested $45 million specifically targeted at e-government."They have helped us," Canales said. "Our concerns are still that security is a high-cost, critical item for the federal government, and we need to refocus our money so we are not all redoing the same security elements at each agency. We need to work better across government so we can use our money a little more wisely." Larry Barrett, CIO at the Small Business Administration, said the e-government strategy "recognized that security is a key component in making the e-gov initiatives a success. People have to feel confident the transactions they make with government are secure. Everybody is working hard to come up with solutions given that there are limited resources to work with." Agency coordination and cooperation, including sharing money, is necessary to accomplish the administration's 24 cross-agency e-government initiatives. The initiatives include governmentwide human resources and geospatial information systems. Mark Forman, the administration's point man on e-government, said getting the agencies to share and work together has been challenging."It's hard, but we are working through it," said Forman, associate director of information technology at the Office of Management and Budget. "It takes the executives to get together. Sometimes the meetings have been revelationary. They all say they want to do the same thing, and this is the way to get it done," Forman said. "We've only really had a couple of areas where people said, 'It's my way or I'm not going to play.' That is flat out unacceptable behavior, and I think people know that. We cannot become an e-government unless we have some rational approaches to how we deliver our services."Forman was heartened by the council's e-government survey, which showed the American public supports e-government that provides citizens with access to information and services that are easier to use, improves communication between federal agencies and between federal, state and local government, and helps businesses use government resources.The council's report "validated and clarified the decisions we made," in the administration's e-government strategy and fiscal 2003 budget request, Forman said. "I've been using that [report] to pat people on the back for doing what's right in the citizens' eyes and to make sure people understand how important the initiatives are."Alan Balutis, executive director and chief operating officer of the Industry Advisory Council, said he would have liked to see the e-government strategy include more information about financing e-government and a vision for e-government beyond the 24 initiatives. The Fairfax, Va., council is a liaison between the government and industry IT communitiesStill, Balutis added, "I would not be surprised to see some of council findings and additional insights get factored in as you see the strategy growing and evolving."The administration's efforts have alleviated some concerns of government oversight bodies outlined in ITAA's CIO survey, said Melissa Wojciak, staff director of the House Government Reform subcommittee on technology and procurement policy. Wojciak participated in the ITAA survey, which cited congressional concerns about the strategy and planning for e-government. "I think they have significantly assuaged our concerns" with a grading system for e-government and a willingness to use OMB's budgetary authority to drive change, Wojciak said.In a recent briefing, Forman said he has frozen some planned procurements because they did not have adequate business plans and did not fit with plans for enterprisewide IT architectures, Wojciak said. "A lot of appropriations subcommittees are skeptical about these projects and skeptical about OMB being able to coordinate them. It takes someone like Mark, a grading system and a budget stick to turn that around. We are going to help them any way we can to overcome congressional stovepipes," she added.Going forward, "we're looking for updates on how initiatives are progressing. We are looking to be kept in the loop so we can assist OMB in meeting their management goals," she said.