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The federal government is wasting money on...

The federal government is wasting money on information technology investments, said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., during a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government hearing (http://1.usa.gov/1mD8MC7). “These techno boondoggles are technology projects that should in…

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theory make the government more effective and efficient in providing services, but instead turn out to be complete ‘flops.'” Mikulski pointed to GAO reports indicating $600 billion has been spent in the last decade on IT and technology. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we have gotten a good return on this investment,” she said. GAO Director-Information Technology Issues David Powner testified Wednesday, presenting a new GAO report showing government agencies have improved accuracy in recording their IT acquisitions, but have removed a number of major investments from an IT dashboard meant to bring transparency and accountability to IT purchasing, which is “troubling” (http://1.usa.gov/1isGn9r). Office of Management and Budget Chief Information Officer Steve VanRoekel presented the administration’s IT requests in its 2015 budget request during the hearing (http://1.usa.gov/1kYBCJ9). The request included a $20 million ask for the Information Technology Oversight and Reform fund, which “will use data, analytics and digital services to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and security of government operations and programs,” VanRoekel said, according to prepared statements.