Author Archive
Stephen M. Ryan
Digital Government
Another View: IRS, tax software companies make peace
Negotiated rule-making. Public-private partnership. Model for A-76 problem-solving. Award-winning e-government application. These qualities can all be attributed to the astounding success of the IRS Free File Alliance, a program that processed millions of tax returns for free this past season. Seventeen companies, linked to an IRS Web site, provided the returns.
Digital Government
Another View: Hill makes welcome changes to MAS
Strange and occasionally wondrous things happen in Washington just before Congress adjourns.
Digital Government
ANOTHER VIEW: Homeland agencies will be wards of OMB
The Office of Management and Budget has the power to turn the money spigot on and off to agencies and programs. The proposed creation of a Homeland Security Department has created a political opportunity for even greater OMB involvement than usual, at a time when there is no bureaucratic or congressional counterweight for it.
Digital Government
ANOTHER VIEW
Federal procurement of information technology is suffering from a serious problem: over-reliance on prime contract awards that put winning primes in a position to make decisions that can benefit themselves at the expense of the taxpayer.
Digital Government
Did system flaws play a role in the files affair?
Election years routinely bring allegations of political dirty tricks. The most serious charge leveled at the Clinton administration this year is that the acquisition of FBI files by the White House staff represents dirty tricks rather than mere bungling. Information technology may be at the root of this affair. At least, IT could be an important factor in proving or disproving what occurred.
Digital Government
Let TSM emerge from black cloud of criticism
No one likes paying taxes, and public opprobrium for tax collectors can be read in the Old and New testaments. In this election year, IRS is a politically vulnerable agency, and within IRS, the most vulnerable portion is the Tax Systems Modernization program. TSM will let IRS replace its legacy systems with modern hardware and software and communications. It has evolved from one of the grandest of grand-design systems to a chastened and smaller
Digital Government
Overzealous criminal investigations abound
Everyone supports prosecution of a crook in the public contracting community--whether it is a corporate official who offers envelopes of cash or a public official who, while making big decisions about a contract, asks a would-be contractor for a job. But I see too many inappropriate and overzealous criminal investigations of government and industry people involving investigative tools and power more suited to busting La Cosa Nostra than your local software buyer or seller.
Digital Government
The new law will cannibalize IDIQ contracts
It's time for the federal government to reconsider its indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract policies, particularly when the government will not obligate itself to buy reasonable quantities of goods through these contracts. The government just loves IDIQ contracts. From the government's perspective, the key feature of an IDIQ is that the awarding agency is obligated to buy only a limited volume of goods, even if it has led would-be sellers to believe it might buy much
Digital Government
Gates is determined not to miss the next wave
Americans always have been fascinated by the great captains of industry, be they robber barons, philanthropists or both. Today there is no larger capitalist colossus than Bill Gates, the 40-ish, $13 billion man. Part of our fascination is sheer admiration for the Harvard dropout who had the courage and vision to sell software in a way that it became a de facto world standard.
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