House Government Reform Committee chairman Tom Davis,
R-Va., has requested a Government Accountability Office
study of progress that agencies have made incorporating
telework into their continuity of operations plans.
The committee said at this second hearing on the status
of COOP planning in the federal government that
shortcomings were evident, and that a GAO survey of
agency progress indicates agencies are not adequately
prepared to continue providing vital services during an
emergency.
“I am asking that GAO conduct an assessment of the
extent to which major federal agencies are properly
preparing their respective alternate facilities for
performing essential functions during emergencies and
an update on agencies’ progress in implementing FEMA
guidance on telework for continuity purposes,” Davis
wrote in a letter to Comptroller General David Walker.
The Office of Personnel Management associate director
Marta Brito Perez told the committee that making
alternate worksites part of everyday business reality
would ease the transition into emergency operations —
and could help recruit and retain talented people.
Last April, OPM acting director Dan G. Blair welcomed
about 80 telework coordinators from over 50 agencies
to a meeting co-sponsored with GSA, to push the
adoption of telework, an initiative that has been slow
to catch on despite the larger role government leaders
such as Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, want it to play
in a reorganized agency structure.
