The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform extended its campaign on federal government technology spending to YouTube with a new video that calls for an “IT revolution.”
The video claims 80 percent of federal IT projects are over budget or never completed and that the government wastes nearly $20 billion a year on IT spending.
“There are too many people in charge of buying things and not enough accountability,” says the video narrator. “They don’t coordinate with each other, so they buy duplicates. They buy things that don’t work with things they’ve already bought. They buy things that are unnecessary and no one holds them accountable.”
The video release coincides with hearings the House committee held on Monday that included testimony from U.S. Chief Information Officer Steven VanRoekel.
“It’s essential for us to fix this part of government that seems to be broken,” said Congressman Darrell Issa said during the hearing. “The federal IT spend is bloated, inefficient and has made it more difficult for the government to serve its citizens.”
VanRoekel highlighted the administration’s efforts over the past four years and his IT priorities since becoming federal CIO.
“Eliminating duplicative IT, reforming Federal IT management, and streamlining service delivery were at the core of the Administration’s first term IT agenda,” VanRoekel told the committee. “Building on the progress of the last four years, my objective is to balance cost savings with innovation by continuing to cut costs while we invest in technology that securely services the American people.”
