A new report looks at reasons why telework has been slow to
catch on in the federal government and calls on the Office
of Management and Budget to ensure telework is part of
agency continuity of operations plans.
The Cyber Security Industry Alliance, a public policy
advocacy group, cited the dearth of progress the federal
government has made despite years of pilot programs,
presidential directives, legislative mandates and threats
to cut funding — such as a recently approved provision
to the fiscal 2006 Science-State-Justice-Commerce
appropriations bill requiring agencies funded by that
measure to either prove more employees are teleworking
or risk losing funding.
The report – “Making Telework a Federal Priority:
Security is Not the Issue,” argues that cultural and
budgetary obstacles hamper the adoption of telework
rather than technological ones.
Paul Kurtz, executive director of CSIA, pointed to the
recent attacks in London that brought operations to a
halt to illustrate the need to lessen the impact of
disruptions by putting in place stronger requirements
for agencies to telework more.
According to the report, requirements to return money
saved from reduced overhead expenses such as office
space to the federal treasury provides weak incentives,
and mangers often prefer employees to work from the
same physical location.