OMB allocates $4.1 million of e-gov fund

The Office of Management and Budget soon will dole out $4.1 million to a trio of e-government programs, the FirstGov project and to an effort to educate agencies about managing change.

The money is part of the $5 million e-government fund that Congress appropriated for this fiscal year. The General Services Administration, which manages the e-government fund, sent the House and Senate Appropriations committees a March 25 letter outlining the OMB spending plan.

The bulk of the money, $3.5 million, will go to the e-government projects: GSA's E-Authentication project will receive $2 million; the Labor Department's GovBenefits.gov will get $800,000; and the Small Business Administration's One-Stop Business Compliance will collect $740,000, according to an official familiar with the letter.

FirstGov is slated to receive $400,000 for content management software. OMB also plans to spend $100,000 to create a program to educate agencies on project management, technical planning and performance metrics use.

One project manager said agencies do not have access to the money yet. OMB has about $900,000 left.

Mark Forman, OMB associate director for e-government and IT, has said the agency would hold back some funds for a later project.