A dashboard makes everyone accountable

Despite being in office for less than two months, Federal CIO Vivek Kundra last week unveiled the federal website that seeks to draw a correlation between the billions of dollars in spending on IT investments and actual performance. (Take a look at www.usaspending.gov to see it.) But what does it mean, you may ask?

For starters, it's the first time taxpayer dollars can be easily tracked in the IT arena. It means that mistakes will be noticed more quickly, and accountability by contractors and IT executives will be at the top of the government's list.

It's also a good way to monitor what's going on in the IT space. Furthermore, it delivers the transparency that President Obama promised.

Still, the dashboard will need to be developed further to provide greater detail, and allow those interested to truly examine how any one of the government agencies is spending the taxpayer's money. The administration has promised to do that, and everyone will be watching to make sure they follow through.

At the end of the day, every detail is important in making sure the government's $38.6 billion for IT in fiscal 2009 is spent to make IT
better, not just allow government to spin its wheels, waste money and do what it feels like with billions of dollars. The dashboard is a
great move in this direction. - Judi