VA CIO human capital management faulted

The office of information technology within the Veterans Affairs Department has managed human resources in an ad hoc measure, says the VA office of inspector general, disapprovingly.

Within the next 5 years, the office could lose more than 40 percent of its leadership and technical employees to retirement, auditors say in an Oct. 29 report (.pdf), but the office of the VA chief information officer hasn't devoted sufficient resources toward developing and implementing a human capital strategy.

As evidence, they cite the nearly 2 year vacancy of the human capital management director positions within the organization, which lasted from October 2010 until May 2012. VA, for its part, says the hiring of  a new director in May 2012 was in fact a major milestone, as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Information Technology Stephen Warren terms it in the agency's official response to the audit.

But auditors cite other gaps, as well, such as staff shortages within the CIO human capital office that as of April 15 amounted to a 29 percent vacancy rate in authorized positions. Work on a human capital strategic plan has stalled pending finalization of an overall VA IT plan, a draft of which auditors say was transmitted to the CIO in May.  

Ineffective human capital management has had a direct role in past VA IT failures, auditors say, citing cancelation of the strategic asset management portion of the Financial and Logistics Integrated Technology Enterprise program  in 2011 and the department's inability to make its Program Management Accountability System fully operational.  

For more:
- download the report, 11-00324-20 (.pdf)

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