Page 28 - FCW, Sept/Oct 2018

20 September/October 2018
FCW.COM
Dave Powner’s
final audit of the
state of federal IT
GAO’s outgoing director of IT management issues reflects on the government’s progress on technology and the critical issues still facing federal IT leaders
BY DEREK B. JOHNSON
For 16 years, Dave Powner has been one of the most visible overseers of good governance in the federal IT arena. From his position as director of IT management issues at the Government Accountability Office, he has helped guide agencies through a necessary and sometimes painful evolution into 21st-century digital enterprises.
Now that the Trump administration is prioritizing modernization and cybersecurity concerns are elevating technology issues in the minds of lawmakers, federal IT has never been more important. Yet Powner is choosing to walk away by taking a job as director of strategic engagement and partnerships at Mitre, where he said he will work on similar issues from a new perspective outside government.
“Sometimes you have an opportunity to do something different, and you get excited about it,” he told FCW.
Looking back on his GAO career, Powner
said his proudest accomplishments were the role he played in establishing the IT Dashboard (warts and all), helping push through the Federal IT Acquisition Reform Act, shrinking the government’s data center footprint and strengthening CIO authorities. He also cited an improvement in GAO’s ability to track the operational and structural problems plaguing government — a pivot from the agency’s traditional focus on acquisition issues.
Powner was complimentary of the way the Trump administration has emphasized and blended modernization and cybersecurity and said he believes the government is on track to dramatically improve in both areas — if federal leaders don’t lose their focus.
“I think this administration has put IT — with the President’s Management Agenda, the modernization strategy and the American Technology Council and all that stuff — at a more prominent level than some other administrations,” Powner said. “Now the