FederalDaily - August 16, 2006

VA Announces Data Encryption Program

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced Aug. 14 that all the agency’s computers will be upgraded with enhanced data security encryption systems, beginning this week. “I have promised America’s veterans that I intend to make VA information security a model of data security,” VA Secretary R. James Nicholson said, “and this expedited encryption program is a major step in that direction.” The announcement of the computer encryption program comes on the heels of a $3.7 million contract awarded Aug. 11 to SMS, Inc., a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business in Syracuse, N.Y.  The contract calls for laptop computers across the VA to get the data security encryption program first, followed by the agency’s desktop PCs.  The program also covers portable media such as flash drives and compact disks. VA said it hopes to have all of its laptops fully encrypted within four weeks.  The move follows several recent highly publicized incidents in which personal information of veterans has been potentially compromised.

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Union Criticizes OPM’s “Pay For Performance” Proposal

The president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), in an open letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), criticized the way nascent “pay-for-performance” pay incentives are meted out in parts of the federal workplace—and opposed OPM-proposed work rules to expand the system. NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley specifically decried continuing problems of secrecy in decision making in the award system, as well as what she called “the persistence of personal favoritism” at many departments and agencies. Kelley said she and her union’s rank and file agree with the stated goals of the new system and are in favor of “increased objectivity” in how employees are recognized and rewarded at work. She praised, for example, work rules NTEU negotiated at IRS, where employees gain merit-based “shares” calculated from an annual appraisal and grade. For more, go to www.nteu.org and www.opm.gov/fedregis/2006/71-062106-35562-a.pdf.

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MSPB Affirms Removal of Lawyer for Hatch Act Violations

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) said that a recent Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) decision upholding the removal of a California lawyer reinforces the message that federal employees cannot use or engage in political activity on the job – even via email. On Aug. 11, the full MSPB unanimously upheld an earlier decision by an administrative judge ordering Small Business Administration attorney Jeffrey Eisinger removed from federal service for having engaged in partisan political activity while on duty – a violation of the Hatch Act. The AJ had found that Eisinger, who was an official of the California Green Party, had used his government computer to receive, read, draft or send more than 100 e-mails directed toward the success of the Green Party. “Regardless of the specific technology used, it remains the law that government resources must not be used for political activities,” said OSC Special Counsel Scott Bloch.

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