E-gov chief says managers stand in way of tech advances

The Bush administration is working to change the outlook of federal managers who are slow to utilize technology to make government more efficient, an administration official said Tuesday.

Mark Forman, associate director for information technology and e-government at the Office of Management and Budget, told attendees of an E-Gov conference that the administration has little tolerance for agency managers who are unwilling to try new ways to implement the e-government and other management initiatives outlined by the President's Management Council.

On Capitol Hill, "patience is running relatively low for that," Forman said, referring to lackluster efforts by some federal managers.

OMB is spearheading a series of e-government initiatives that are tied into the administration's homeland security efforts, and they are designed to aid in information-sharing efforts, among other things. Increased e-government services and better dissemination of information will help in other areas such as airport security, background checks and visa-approval processes, Forman said.

Forman said the scorecard system being used to track agency progress in implementing Bush's management agenda will give agencies incentives to succeed. Progress is measured by a three-tiered grading system: "green" for passing, "yellow" for mixed results and "red" for failing.

Knowledge management, or the ability to process and utilize data in a meaningful and useful form, is becoming a catch phrase as business and governments seek workers who are comfortable using technology to perform business functions and to make sense of a myriad of information.

"Ultimately, the government worker of the future has to be a knowledge worker," Forman said.

Forman said federal managers' lack of education on the benefits of technology and knowledge management is a key hurdle to overcome to make government more efficient.

A bill sponsored by Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and ranking Republican Fred Thompson of Tennessee, aims to highlight how knowledge management can aid in e-government initiatives, Forman said.

The measure, S. 803, passed by the committee last month, would establish a federal chief information officer within OMB to help streamline e-government implementation within agencies. It also would establish a broad framework for the use of Internet-based information technology to enhance citizen access to government information and services.

A spokeswoman for Lieberman said his office is negotiating with Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., on when the bill would be brought to the Senate floor.

Forman said knowledge management is the underlying theme for OMB's fiscal 2002 information technology agenda. Key elements of that agenda include homeland security initiatives--such as information sharing--and cyber security. Forman said that with the 22,000 Web-based access points to the federal government and the 33 million Web pages controlled by the government, "there are dozens, if not thousands, of vulnerabilities."