Just of his July appoint, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Richard Spires, is reviewing seventy nine IT projects to cut costs and possibly halt ineffective programs. A task Spires claims he is prepared to do, “We’ll assess the program, and if it’s fatally flawed, we’ll stop the program,” he said. He’s quoted as saying, “[w]e’re not going to continue to spend money for no benefit. [But] we haven’t seen that yet.”
An IT program that is under particular scrutiny is DHS’s Transformation and Systems Consolidation program to integrate twenty four data system to the Space Station. The program’s inability to get off the ground is due in large part because a contract has yet to be awarded.
Spires is also looking to reverse the trend of hiring contractors to carry out work and consequently is planning to bring on 200 more employees. In 2004 the office hired 121 contractors which increased to 550 2007 while only evaluating 57% of all DHS’s IT programs. Spires’s explanation for the increase is that to bring a government agency up and running quickly often takes the work of outside contractors.
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