Weekly Roundup: September 21-25, 2020

Submitted by on Fri, 09/25/2020 - 08:28

Bend or Build the Bureaucracy? Government Executive offers two feature stories where its reporters: “explore what Trump’s first term tells us about how he would govern in a second term, and what Joe Biden’s deep experience in Washington tells us about how he would lead the executive branch.”

Lawrence Tobin, Major, US Army and IBM Training-with-Industry Fellow

Submitted by on Wed, 09/23/2020 - 16:14

Lawrence M. Tobin is a Major in the United States Army, serving 15 years as both Chemical officer and an Operations Research Systems Analyst. Currently Major Tobin is a fellow with IBM, learning industry best practices.

Post Pandemic Planning – Should the U.S. Go Back to the Office After COVID-19?

Submitted by on Wed, 09/23/2020 - 16:11

It’s been six months since a national emergency was declared as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This past week, the US passed the grim threshold of 200,000 pandemic-related deaths out of nearly 7 million reported cases, and experts are predicting that it may be mid-2021 or even 2022 before a semblance of normal life will return.

Lt. General Ronald Place

Submitted by on Mon, 09/21/2020 - 08:51

Lieutenant General Ronald J. Place is the Director, Defense Health Agency (DHA), Defense Health Headquarters, Falls Church, Virginia. He leads a joint, integrated Combat Support Agency enabling the Army, Navy, and Air Force medical services to provide a medically ready force and ready medical force to Combatant Commands in both peacetime and wartime.

Weekly Roundup: September 14-18, 2020

Submitted by on Fri, 09/18/2020 - 12:52

Six More Months. Government Executive reports: “A majority of federal employees currently working from home due to the novel coronavirus pandemic do not expect to return to the office any time soon, according to a new survey, with 60% saying they expect to remain in their current posture for at least another six months.”

Evolution of Federal Financial Management Reforms

Submitted by on Wed, 09/16/2020 - 09:45

For 22 of the 24 largest federal agencies, they’ve achieved that status. Two agencies remain in financial statement purgatory – the Departments of Defense and Housing and Urban Development. Until they can meet muster with their auditors, the governmentwide financial statement will remain incomplete, as well.

The requirement to produce agency and governmentwide financial statements, and have them audited, stems from the early 1990s. At that time, no one had a clue how hard it would be to complete a “clean” or “unqualified” audit opinion.

 

Part 8 – Distance Work: A Three Generation Perspective

Submitted by on Tue, 09/15/2020 - 10:18

[Note: This column also appears in Washington Technology. It is the eighth in a series on how the COVID-19 crisis has changed how government works. Sheri Fields and Michaela Drust, IBM, contributed as co-authors of this column.]

Dr. Donald Rucker

Submitted by on Mon, 09/14/2020 - 09:56

Dr. Don Rucker, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, comes to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) from the Ohio State University where he was Clinical Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Informatics and Premise Health, a worksite clinic provider, where he served as Chief Medical Officer.

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