How a 'serious IT problem' in government could get worse in 2016

We hear a lot about challenges associated with government IT and programs, but there's something refreshing about hearing this much candor from a sitting deputy secretary: "We have a serious IT problem."

Those words came from Chris Lu of the Labor Department Thursday during a panel discussion on presidential transitions hosted by the Partnership for Public Service. Presidential transition talk already? Yes. And the comment from Lu explains exactly why it's kicking off now, more than a year before the presidential election.

It's worth noting that Lu, who was the executive director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, wasn't referring to the state of IT at Labor specifically. He was referring to the state of IT in government at large. IT is underfunded and siloed, he said – and that contributes to situations like the one still unraveling at the Office of Personnel Management, where millions of records on federal employees were compromised.

Lu tempered his comments by saying that agencies are at least beginning to hit a stride in the non-partisan management areas that include IT, as well as HR, customer service and innovation. But even as the administration makes progress, in the context of a transition, "a serious IT problem" has the potential to get worse.

Lu was joined on the panel by Clay Johnson, who handled transition for the Bush administration, and Martha Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project. All three emphasized the importance for an incoming administration to not neglect cross-cutting issues while pushing a partisan management agenda, and not overlook the importance of career employees while working to get political appointees confirmed.

But really, can the current administration begin to plan for a transition this far ahead? Perhaps not tangibly. But there's something to be said about laying the groundwork before any heavy lifting gets underway.

"My concern is once you have a transition those initiatives die, and we need to reeducate. These things need to live on," Lu said. "There's this level of people that run government. Not enough attention is paid to these people during the transition process until you realize without these people, your agency can't run."

About Jill Aitoro

Jill Aitoro is editor of Defense News. She is also executive editor of Sightline Media's Business-to-Government group, including Defense News, C4ISRNET, Federal Times and Fifth Domain. She brings over 15 years’ experience in editing and reporting on defense and federal programs, policy, procurement, and technology.