The Office of Personnel Management is beset by numerous management challenges—as are all federal agencies and most nongovernmental organizations—with IT management among the top four, according to the agency inspector general’s annual report.
While OPM struggles with financial and governmentwide challenges of varying criticality, there is a clear path toward fixing its IT issues, so long as the agency follows a plan laid out by Chief Information Officer Clare Martorana and independent consultants.
The report cites the 2015 breach of OPM networks that exposed sensitive information on tens of millions of Americans and notes the agency’s IT security has greatly improved. However, the focus on security issues and the piecemeal move of background security work to the Defense Department has left the rest of the agency’s IT in dire need of a revival.
“While OPM has made significant progress with respect to its technical security environment, consolidation of data centers, data encryption, and multifactor authentication, the agency is still burdened by legacy, mission-critical applications, outdated infrastructure and processes, and an ineffective technology business model,” the report states, citing frequent turnovers in leadership in the Office of the CIO and at the top of the agency.
“For the first time in many years, OPM is in a position where its chief information officer has combined a persuasive vision with a detailed plan to successfully see it through,” the IG wrote. “If the agency can achieve the phase one modernization goal, it will stabilize its critical IT functions and reduce the risk of compromising sensitive data.”
Martorana contracted with a consulting firm to verify the feasibility of the new plan. The c ..
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