House lawmakers pressed Pentagon officials Wednesday on their department’s third consecutive “F” grade on a technology acquisition scorecard pointing to confusion over budget authorities, the slow pace of data center consolidation and a lack of transparency on spending.
DoD received failing marks in nearly every category of the latest version of the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (FITARA) scorecard released this week, including for software licensing and review of its information technology (IT) portfolio.
“We are concerned about DoD’s scoring. On the current scorecard, DoD stands out as the only agency to receive an overall grade of F. It’s the third scorecard in which you’ve received an F. You’ve had poor performance in almost every metric we’ve used,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), ranking member of the House Government Operations subcommittee, said during a joint hearing with the IT subcommittee.
The department has yet to receive a grade above “D” on any of the six FITARA scorecards released since November 2015.
Wednesday’s hearing was the first opportunity for Dana Deasy, DoD’s new CIO, to testify on the Pentagon’s IT budget, which accounts for nearly 45 percent of all federal technology spending.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the Government Operations subcommittee, pressed Deasy on the lack of policy giving him direct control over budget authority is continuing to bring down DoD’s FITARA score.
“We need a directive policy from the appropriate heads to give Mr. Deasy this authority. That’s what we’ve been asking for. That’s what CIO’s need,” Meadow said. “I’ve been unbelievably concerned that we have people who do procurement, people who do RFPs, people who actually implement, and they don’t really all talk. In fact, you have silos that almost prohibit them from talking. We want to make sure that Mr. Deasy, under this new regime, has the ability to make the best IT decisions. We need either a plan on how you’re going to do that or a response back to this committee on why you can’t.”
DoD officials at the hearing said there are 35 Pentagon officials who have “CIO” in their title and Deasy has the authority to review their budgets but not make final spending decisions on their IT investments.
“I think that there should only be one CIO. It’s very expensive to not have an enterprise perspective and not have someone at the top of that enterprise,” Mark Easton, DoD’s deputy CFO, said during the hearing.
Deasy, who comes from a private sector background and was most recently JP Morgan’s CIO, said he intends to work with DoD to consolidate authority and work with senior leadership to streamline IT acquisition and budgeting.
“I can’t tell you at this point what that will take in terms of timing. But I can tell you I have a fundamental belief, coming from the outside, there’s nothing that you’re asking for here that any good CIO organization shouldn’t just fundamentally do,” Deasy said.
A recent executive order from President Trump authorized agency CIO’s to have direct report and enhanced budget authorities, however DoD was exempted from the order.
Lawmakers also pressed the witnesses on DoD’s slow pace to consolidate its data centers to improve savings and technology efficiencies.
David Powner, GAO’s director of IT management issues, said during the hearing DoD previously reported to his agency it planned to save $4.7 billion from data center optimization, but has only recorded $400 million in savings.
“The delivery of new cloud capability promises to provide commercial solutions that will accelerate data center closures, achieve cost efficiencies and improve return on investment,” said Deasy, who will oversee the Pentagon’s upcoming multi-billion dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure cloud project.
Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), who authored FITARA, noted that many DoD technology projects are not listed of the government’s IT dashboard website due to national security concerns but believes the cover of classified material may hinder the Pentagon from making the best use of its massive software-intensive projects.
“DoD continues to be the only agency with an ‘F’ on the scorecard. DoD’s failing score is, in part, due to the lack of transparency it provides into the the majority of its IT spending” said Hurd, who also serves as chairman of the IT subcommittee.
Deasy, who is just 13 days into the job, assured the House panel he plans to work to improve DoD’s FITARA score including making more information available on its IT spending.
Connolly suggested new policies that may be required to address the transparency issue, which could make use of Deasy’s extensive experience in the private sector.
“We’ve been surprised, and bitterly disappointed, by DoD. And I think it’s in the culture,” Connolly said. “You’re the only agency without an unqualified audit. You don’t cooperate with GSA in terms of the off-the-shelf procurement policy. You got your own. And you’re where the big bucks are.”