Feds Questioning the Value of IT?

Following up on our post from yesterday about the decisions of two British retailers to , we ran across an item on Government Executive.com that relates the U.S. Department of Agriculture's appointment of its CFO to as the agency's CIO.

This is a break from tradition for the USDA, which has had a dedicated CIO since at least 2000, notes the blog post.

Part of the issue is that there are just 18 months remaining in President Bush's term, which makes it difficult to fill any executive slots at federal agencies.

But the post strikes a pessimistic tone, noting that the message conveyed by the USDA appointment is: "We don’t need a full-time CIO because IT doesn't matter."

Such moves mean that government agencies won't employ IT as a strategic tool to improve services, opines blogger Allan Holmes. Making the problem worse: in federal IT spending over the next two years.

The government's tech track record is spotty, which led the Bush administration to require federal agencies to .