02 Oct 06. Coburn: Agency IT project info due Oct. 13. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is giving agencies until Oct. 13 to provide him with information on all IT projects worth at least $250,000. The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information and International Security sent the letter to agencies’ secretaries and administrators Sept. 14, shortly after the hearing the subcommittee held on IT projects at risk. Agencies are expected to provide the subcommittee with a list of all IT projects worth at least $250,000. And for
each project, agencies are to list the year the project began receiving funding, its original baseline estimate, how much has been spent on it to date, whether there have been any cost overruns and whether the project has ever been given a new baseline estimate as well as the amount of the new estimate. (Source: GCN)
02 Oct 06. Congress OKs $3.4bn for port security. Congress passed a $3.4bn port security bill before adjourning Saturday that will send more funding and technology to the nation’s ports. The legislation, H.R. 4954, the Port Security Improvement Act of 2006, authorizes $400m a year through 2011 for direct grants to ports, which can be spent on equipment and training. The equipment covered includes communications gear that is interoperable with federal, state and local agencies; software to enhance terrorism preparedness; IT programs and software for information-sharing and for handling classified information; and surveillance and security equipment to protect critical infrastructure at the port. The bill also requires the 22 largest ports to upgrade scanning for radiological materials in containers by 2008. (Source: GCN)
14 Sep 06. Pragmatics, Inc. was awarded a $6m task expanding our current Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) support of US Army biometric systems. “Pragmatics’ highly skilled staff, proven practices, and commitment to the Army’s mission has resulted in this expansion of our SETA work in the Charlottesville, Virginia area,” said Mr. Joe Brock, Pragmatics’ Vice President and General Manager for Systems Engineering and Management. The work was awarded under the Defense Information Systems Agency Encore contract, a multiple-award contract vehicle open to all federal agencies.
28 Sep 06. The Estonian Government and EADS signed a contract in September 2006 on building the Estonian Public Safety Digital Mobile Trunked Radio Network (EDTN). Users of the network will include the police, border guards, rescue services, and other organisations responsible for public safety. The EDTN network is planned to be ready for service during the first half of year 2007. Bringing together all the Estonian public safety agencies on one shared EADS TETRA radio network can make the work of the emergency services more efficient. Communications between different organisations will become significantly easier, for example. And as the network will provide nationwide coverage, all agencies can receive the same information and messages securely and simultaneously.
Comment: EADS is believed to have lost out to BT in the contract to supply the U.K. Emergency services with a new communications system.