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The Obama team should elevate the departmental CIO position to its rightful level of responsibility and authority. More than 10 years have passed since the so-called Clinger-Cohen law was enacted, establishing the CIO positions and designed to improve and speed up acquisition. A congressional staff report entitled “Computer Chaos” detailed IT initiatives across government that were over budget, behind schedule and not delivering the promised functionality. But soon after the bill's passage, Rep. Bill Clinger retired, Sen. Cohen became Defense Secretary and the Office of Management and Budget took a laissez faire attitude towards implementation. This allowed multiple models across government. Few secretaries set the CIO at the called-for level (reporting to the secretary), or provided the position with sufficient authority, or clarified the domain of responsibility. Recently, as a parting half-hearted gesture to clean up the situation as they were headed out the door, Bush OMB officials floated a letter that would have clarified the role of the CIO in departments and independent agencies. Yet what emerged after final review and clearance did nothing of the kind. In fact, the clear weakening of the guidance from the initial draft demonstrated clearly how little has been done. |
