Dream job: Selling snow cones at the beach or a job that lets me concentrate more on my family. GCN: Why did the Veterans Affairs Department create the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Information and Technology?
GRACEY: VA had the office under consideration for some time. When Secretary Togo West arrived in an acting capacity in January, it was one of the issues that came to his attention early. He put some of us to work on setting forth the issues for him in the spring.
We presented him with some ideas and he made the decision fairly quickly to go ahead and separate [the office from the Chief Financial Office] because the operation was big enough and important enough to veterans that it needed to be done.
GCN: The office has been open for a few months now. How is everything going?
GRACEY: Everything is going pretty well. This is an organization that I came into when I joined VA in 1983. So for me, its kind of like coming home. Its an organization I knew fairly well and have been involved with a lot over the years.
GCN: You are the acting assistant secretary in the new office. When will VA name a full-time assistant secretary?
GRACEY: The position is a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed job. That process is one that takes some time. So Im not sure when it will be filled. It could be soon if there is somebody in government already. It could be a while if its somebody from the outside.
GCN: Have you applied for the position?
GRACEY: Im a long-time, career federal civil servant.
I have been appointed here actually as principal deputy assistant secretary, so Ill act when there is no assistant secretary. When an assistant secretary comes, Ill drop back to that principal deputy job but stay in this organization.
Im interested in the position but have not applied for it. It is not something Ill do because I have almost 30 years in and do not have interest in a political job.
GCN: A July General Accounting Office report concluded that VA has not fully implemented the requirements of the Information Technology Management Reform Act. Was the new office created in response to that report?
GRACEY: The office is something VA had in the works. It was not in response to the GAO report. The GAO report is kind of a general review of what needs to be done to satisfy the requirements of the Clinger-Cohen act and where we are.
We are in a position where we have some steps to take to be completely compliant. I think we have taken some good steps. I think there is a lot of work that remains to be done.
I think GAO is fairly on point with where we need to go and what we need to do. I think the good news is we started some of the steps. Things are moving, so its not a Square 1 issue for us.
GCN: You have knowledge of VAs systems work for the past 15 years. What are the departments most pressing needs?
GRACEY: One would be replacing of our Integrated Data Communications Utility. This is the network over which we move data between our thousand sites that we have in the organization.
Were in the 10th year of a 10-year contract, which expires next summer. We need to strategize how were going to replace that and move on. Its the glue that ties the 1,000 locations of VA together and makes us work. So thats an important one.
We have a project going called the One VA Architecture. It is a document that attempts to draw a picture of how VA should look from the perspective of using technology to serve our customers. We are then filling in pieces of the picture with various projects.
This is in the approval stage through our strategic management process. One VA Architecture will be critical to us because it deals with how veterans can be given better access to VA through the use of technology and how we can do a better job of serving them.
GCN: What are the differences between your current position and your old position as chief of staff for the department?
GRACEY: The chief of staff position was an interesting one because it was working daily with the secretary, deputy secretary and other top leaders of the department on the big policy issues and operational issues. It was a fun job.
I worked with the White House, other federal departments and some with Capitol Hill. It was an exciting job. There was also a lot of interaction with veterans service organizations.
This new job has the same kind of excitement. There is a lot to be done. It is another opportunity to serve veterans better, to work to improve the way this government organization works to help the people it was put in place to serve.
VA is a unique place because it has such an easily identifiable and important group of folks who it was designed to serve: people who have served in the military. You get to meet a lot of heroes, people who have done more for their country than the average person.
To work in a government institution where you provide direct service, where you can tell if youre doing a good job and see that youre helping people, is very exciting.
GCN: What is the status of VAs year 2000 work?
GRACEY: As of August, VA systems are 94 percent renovated, with more than 300 applications that are mission-critical. About 84 percent of these systems have been validated, some 62 percent have gone into production or are running. We think that is very good shape.
We are planning to try and have everything in place, easily with nine months to go and hopefully more. So by January, February, March, I expect to say were 100 percent done. Weve implemented a lot, and were heavy into running it in the production environment to make sure everything continues to work.
GCN: It sounds as if youre pretty well ahead. What do you attribute that to?
GRACEY: Getting on the project early and having some good folks work on it. Weve stayed on it; weve stayed in touch; weve had meetings. We deal with each other. The secretary and deputy secretary have been personally involved.
I still think we have things to be concerned about. Its never over until its over. I think everybody will feel better when they wake up Jan. 1, 2000, and everything is still running and working well, especially in our hospital system.
We also have to worry about the infrastructure outside VA, such as power companies and medical devices. Well have some contingency plans in place. On the benefits side, we have similar concerns with small banks where veterans benefits checks are deposited. Veterans need not worry about their benefits on a large scale.
GCN: What are VAs top challenges?
GRACEY: VA runs the biggest health care system in the United States. That has its own challenges as health care costs go up and medicine changes probably faster than anything.
VA also runs a $20 billion benefits program that pays benefits out to veterans and their dependents. There are a lot issues with how you do that in a modern way. We are a customer service organization. How you do the best job in a time when government budget receives so much focus and is shrinking? How do you deliver good or even better service with fewer resources? These are the big challenges. So far we have been doing that.
GCN: What are some tips and techniques for becoming a successful government executive?
GRACEY: The way to be successful is to keep an open mind, collect facts, analyze them, make decisions and then give advice based on how you see the facts and how you interpret them. And be honest and open. Thats how Ive gotten to where I am.
|