Plans for telework during disasters found to be lacking

The ability of federal agencies to continue critical operations during large-scale emergency situations would be significantly enhanced with widespread use of telework, but few have made the necessary preparations, officials told a congressional panel Thursday.

Comptroller General David M. Walker said agencies would be unlikely to ensure that their employees are able to telework during a disaster unless White House-mandated guidance from the Homeland Security Department requires them to do so.

"Government agencies must be positioned to continue functioning during ... emergencies," Walker told the House Government Reform Committee. "[Telework] appears particularly appropriate in the case of pandemic influenza."

According to Walker's testimony (GA0-06-740T), nine of 23 agencies surveyed between June 2005 and February 2006 reported that some of their "essential team members" are expected to telework during a large-scale emergency, but only one had documented that those employees had been notified.

None were able to demonstrate sufficient technological capacity to make telework possible for those employees and only three documented testing of their telework plans.

A Government Accountability Office review of six agencies' plans for using alternate work facilities during a large-scale disruption (GAO-06-713) found that none followed Federal Emergency Management Agency guidance governing continuity of operations planning.

Office of Personnel Management Director Linda Springer told the panel each agency needs to include telework in its continuity of operations plan, but OPM does not have the legal authority to direct agencies to do so. That authority should reside with FEMA, Springer said.

She said OPM is on track to meet a three-month deadline for updating its telework guidance, set in the White House's plan for responding to pandemic influenza.

According to Springer, roughly half of federal agencies include telework options in their continuity of operations plans. She said she is meeting with the President's Council on Integrity and Efficiency, a group of agency inspectors general, to encourage the organization to put a protocol in place for agencies to test-run telework plans.

A second panel of private sector officials, including Scott Kriens, chairman and chief executive officer of Juniper Networks, and Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, said the technology for agency employees to work from home during disasters is readily available.

Kurtz said officials "simply don't know" the impact if half the 60,000 employees of the Health and Human Services Department try to work offsite.

"We do know that any limitations on their ability to do their jobs would have a cascading effect throughout the medical system, and at the worst possible time," Kurtz said. He recommended that the president's advisory committees on the issue suggest plans for surge capability.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., expressed his frustration with agencies' sluggish implementation of telework, as compared with the private sector.

"Frankly, the progress of federal agencies in adopting [continuity of operation] plans and implementing telework is not that impressive," Davis said. "The White House pandemic implementation plan says nothing at all at requiring federal agencies to develop [continuity of operations] pandemic plans or incorporate telework in their plans."

Also at the hearing, Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., announced that he is introducing legislation that would require the Chief Human Capital Officers Council to carry out and assess a 10-day telework demonstration project.

Heather Greenfield of National Journal's Technology Daily contributed to this article.