DHS inspector general 2007 agenda to focus on IT procurement

We are confident that none of our readers would ever commit fraud or indulge in any sort of procurement malfeasance, but perhaps they happen to know, ever so tangentially, some who would, and would pass this notice on to them. The DHS inspector general, we now hear, plans to put IT security, program management, and procurement practices at the top of his watch list for fiscal year 2007. Plans include at least four audits of laptop security in its own workplace — readers may recall the recent ironic story that the inspector general’s office had misplaced some of its own — as well as at Customs and Border Protection, the Science and Technology Directorate, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will also conduct a department-wide audit of physical and logical access controls for personal digital assistants and cell phones; an audit of management oversight of DHS data-mining activities; and closely examine the SBInet program to learn how SBInet program managers use lessons learned from other programs to minimize risks — including a congressionally mandated audit of each contract or task order valued at more than $20 million. Other programs under review will include the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ IT modernization, and the Coast Guard’s enterprise architecture implementation.

-read more in Brian Robinson’s FCWreport