Weekly Roundup: June 26-30, 2023

Explore the June 2023 Agency Priority Goal Updates. Agency Priority Goals, or APGs, are an agency’s near-term, implementation-focused priorities that the heads of each major federal agency set every two years. On June 29th, the Office of Management and Budget published the FY 2023 Q2 updates on Performance.gov. These goals serve as steppingstones towards long-term objectives outlined in the agency’s strategic plan.

Cybersecurity: Launching and Implementing the National Cybersecurity Strategy. Federal agency information systems and national critical infrastructure are vulnerable to cyberattacks. This Snapshot from GAO covers the status of the National Cybersecurity Strategy. The strategy's goals and strategic objectives provide a good foundation, but the Administration needs to establish specific objectives and performance measures, resource requirements, and roles and responsibilities. It will be difficult to implement the strategy when the specific details have yet to be issued. The continued vacancy in the role of National Cyber Director is also a challenge.

Federal CTOs Talk Emerging Tech Use Cases, Challenges. With the importance of cybersecurity and IT taking center stage across the Federal landscape, three agency chief technology officers (CTO) talked this week about actions they are taking to help meet their organizations’ cybersecurity needs. During a webinar hosted by Federal News Network on June 27, the CTOs from military and civilian agencies detailed the type of emerging technology and training they are integrating into their technology ecosystem.

VA Leaders Outline Technology Transformation Progress. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hosted a DigitalVA Expo today in Palo Alto, California, where VA leaders shared some of the technology experiences the agency has been working on to improve care for veterans, as well as the transformation that needs to happen at the VA to continue to build excellence in technical solutions. Kurt DelBene, VA CIO, added that the VA’s success thus far in its tech experiences for veterans “starts from that mission, which is so critical. “We have a goal which is very simple: we want to be the best IT in the federal government bar none. And we’re going to do that by actually changing the way we do things,” DelBene said.

Pentagon Needs AI Acquisition Guidance, GAO Says. The Department of Defense (DoD) has already begun integrating AI into its warfighting capabilities – including the Navy leveraging simulations to support modern training. Despite the rapid deployment of emerging technology, the Pentagon has failed to issue department-wide AI acquisitions guidance, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed today.

Army Official Keys on Supply Chain Communications Challenge. Without proper channels to facilitate strong communication within its supply chain, the Army Material Command (AMC) cannot meet the demand of requirements as the primary provider of materials to the U.S. Army, according to an AMC official. Wayne (Tom) Ray, civilian deputy for the Director of the Supply Chain Management Directorate at AMC, explained that inefficient communication is the primary roadblock to an efficient supply chain – and that this became explicitly clear during the COVID-19 pandemic.

SBA OIG: Potentially Fraudulent COVID Loans Topped $200B. The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a new report today estimating that of the $1.2 trillion SBA disbursed through its pandemic assistance loan programs, over $200 billion was potentially fraudulent. The new figure from the OIG means that at least 17 percent of all COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds were potentially fraudulent – specifically, more than $136 billion COVID-19 EIDLs and $64 billion in PPP funds.

13 Principles for Using AI Responsibly. The competitive nature of AI development poses a dilemma for organizations, as prioritizing speed may lead to neglecting ethical guidelines, bias detection, and safety measures. Known and emerging concerns associated with AI in the workplace include the spread of misinformation, copyright and intellectual property concerns, cybersecurity, data privacy, as well as navigating rapid and ambiguous regulations. To mitigate these risks, we propose thirteen principles for responsible AI at work.  Source: Harvard Business Review

Solving Problems with Integrative Thinking. “Integrative thinking is this idea of leveraging the tension of opposing ideas to create a great answer that we can achieve consensus around,” says Jennifer Riel, who teaches at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. She gives examples from the film industry to show how CEOs have put the process to work. Riel is also the chief strategy officer at IDEO and the coauthor, along with Roger Martin, of the book Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking.