Jun 29, 2011

Social Security's IT Changes Run Counter To General Trend

From Information Week Government:
While a number of federal agencies are moving toward more centralized lines of IT  [Information Technology] authority under the CIO [Chief Information Officer], the Social Security Administration appears to be headed in the other direction. Last Friday it broke up much of the CIO organization and scattered its authority across several offices. ...
 While Social Security CIO Frank Baitman and the CIO's organization will remain, they will do so with a significantly trimmed role, and without a series of key deputies who have moved to other organizations or have left the agency....
While Social Security has just moved much of the CIO's authority elsewhere, to the Office of Systems, numerous agencies are headed in the other direction. Several agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of the Interior, have consolidated CIO authority in recent years. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When you are saddled with a Schedule C (political) CIO, then you might well want to shift as much authority as you can to other (Office of Systems) staff. I can't swear that this is or was the case, but it seemed like it.

Anonymous said...

The CIO may be a well respected personage, but he is not an efficacious administrator. He built a bloated bureaucracy and he sold that approach to a gullible Commissioner. It's take back time, Charlie.