Federal Daily - July 9, 2008

CBP Officers Begin 'New Era' With LEO Status

This week, new Customs and Border Protection Officers (CBPOs) will begin working under a designation their colleagues fought to have for years—to be recognized as federal law enforcement officers (LEO). The new LEO status is not retroactive, and therefore is not applicable to officers hired prior to the law’s passage. However, all CBPOs will receive the benefit of a new retirement benefit program and formula that will provide them with higher pensions, according to a statement from the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which backed the change. “This is a cause for celebration both for employees and CBP,” said NTEU President Colleen Kelley. “This new program recognizes these men and women for the law enforcement work they do every day.” Under the legislation recently approved by Congress, approximately 18,000 CBPOs became immediately eligible for the enhanced retirement benefit—and those hired after July 6 will receive immediate LEO status. CBPOs form the first line of defense at the nation's 327 land, air and sea ports of entry and have dual missions of providing security and facilitating legitimate cross-border trade. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1301.

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TIGTA Critical of Current IRS Succession Plan

Last week, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) issued a report finding that the IRS must make more progress in its employee succession plan. The plan must be improved if the agency is to keep top spots filled in the face of an anticipated steep loss of senior agency staff in the coming wave of retirements. The TIGTA audit examined how well the IRS Human Capital Office was developing and overseeing a key succession planning program that ensures the timely identification of qualified IRS candidates for leadership positions and the continuity of the IRS leadership workforce. TIGTA found the IRS had made “some progress”—particularly with a 2006 pilot program that provided a standardized, ongoing method to identify leadership potential among employees. However, the audit also reported that significant work remains to be done. For example, to date, the agency has not developed a well-documented leadership succession plan containing a clearly defined strategy, the report said. The IRS also has not fully developed performance measures to assist senior management in assessing whether leadership succession planning efforts are effective, the report said. To see more, go to: www.treas.gov/tigta/auditreports/2008reports/
200810132_oa_highlights.html.

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Telework Survey Finds Federal Employees Unsure of Wireless Policies

The results of a recent survey of federal employees were released this week by the Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership that aims to demonstrate the value of telework in the federal workplace. The report, entitled “Federal Mobility 2.0: Examining Federal Data Security In A Wireless World,” reveals the opinions of just over 300 surveyed federal employees—federal teleworkers, non-teleworkers and IT managers—toward policy and the security of data in an era when wireless, mobile internet use is rising rapidly among government workers. While 83 percent of those polled said that “wireless internet can be secure,” only 68 percent of survey respondents who were IT professionals said that their organization “offers tools to make wireless internet as secure as possible.” IT managers at the DoD who participated in the survey report that—although wireless use can be a threat to security—the number one threat to data security is “not encrypting laptops.” In an unnerving statistic, fully 33 percent of the portion who actively telework reported that they were “unsure if their agency allows wireless internet use,” and meanwhile about half—53 percent—of all employees said they had access to wireless Internet. The survey’s authors found that “mobile data security is a top concern for Federal agencies.” For more, go to www.teleworkexchange.com.

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