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VA wants more secretaries

The Veterans Affairs Department wants more changes in the way it manages information technology.

The department's fiscal 2011 request includes a legislative request to create five new deputy assistant secretary positions within the office of information and technology, each overseeing a business line:

  • Strategy, Architecture and Design,
  • Product Development and Delivery,
  • Enterprise Program Management Office,
  • IT Performance Management, and
  • IT Operations and Engineering.

The request for the new positions stems from an IBM study, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said in prepared testimony March 10 before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.  

The new positions are "not about creating a new layer of bureaucracy," Shinseki said. The proposal "is about streamlining and aligning our organization in ways that will better align our priorities with the most responsible use of funds entrusted to this Department," he said.

The department's CIO shop currently has two deputy assistant secretary positions, Shinseki said. The VA underwent considerable centralization of its IT function in 2006, following a massive data loss of veterans' personal information when a VA employee's laptop was stolen from his suburban Washington, D.C. home.

The VA chief information officer is one of the few people within the federal government to enjoy direct control over the entirety of department operations. The VA requests $3.3 billion for IT in fiscal 2011.

For more:
- check out Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki's testimony
- see the department's fiscal 2011 budget request (.pdf)

Related Article:
Roger Baker named VA CIO
Secret agency goes public with budget request
DHS tech budget on a roll
Obama seeks tiny IT budget increase

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Comments

The statement alluding to "a massive data loss of veterans' personal information" is a little hyperbolic. There is no doubt that an Excel spreadsheet contained identifying information on 25+ million veterans was on the stolen laptop. VA was lucky that it was never opened or used, and that the laptop was recovered. As a field employee, I'm just reacting to the implication that the data was "lose". It would have been nice to see a more even-handed statement like "following a massive potential exposure of veterans' personal information".

@CCurtis - Your point that the event ended without harm to vets is well taken. The data indeed was not improperly used or distributed, the laptop and the stolen hardware recovered, things I should have noted. But I stand by the "loss" language – the data was beyond VA control for a period of weeks, and the fallout was much greater than from a “massive potential exposure.” Top officials resigned, the department CIO gained unprecedented centralized authority and the VA ended up paying $20 million to settle a class action lawsuit filed over the matter. -Dave

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