Feds still trapped in last century

The federal government may be making progress on the IT front, but some agencies remain in the dark ages. Federal CIO Vivek Kundra, speaking at the University of Washington's Evans School of Public affairs, listed some of the troubles plaguing the government agencies, and talked about his hope that better use of information technology can provide a fix.

Kundra cited the 160 days it takes the Veteran's Administration to process benefits for veterans. Part of the reason for the slowness of the system is that the VA is still processing paperwork by passing manila folders from one desk to another. Kundra said VA employees sometimes send a folder by UPS to another office, all the while ignoring modern technology.

Then there's the Patent and Trademark Office, which takes three years to process a patent. Kundra said the patent office receives applications online, prints them out, and then someone manually re-keys the information into an antiquated system.

Sounds crazy in this day and age, but someone set up these systems, and change is difficult when it comes to the bureaucracy.

There's more. Kundra said the State Department has spent $133 million during the past six years writing reports about the security of its IT systems. He said the reports are then filed away in secure rooms and probably never seen again.

To get the full rundown of government inefficiencies and Kundra's plans for change:
- see this Computerworld article

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