Federal CIO Kundra Takes Leave of Absence After Woes

CWmike writes "The fallout from Thursday's arrests of a District of Columbia IT security official and contractor quickly raised questions about the fate of Vivek Kundra, the new federal CIO who until recently ran the office now mired in bribery allegations. Appointed by President Barack Obama as CIO less than two weeks ago, Kundra was CTO for the District of Columbia. But yesterday, Kundra's former office in a downtown government building was a crime scene. A White House official, speaking on background, confirmed today that Kundra took a leave of absence from his new CIO job shortly after federal investigators arrested two men in the DC government office on bribery charges. The official would not elaborate on the reasons for the leave; there were no indications yesterday that Kundra was involved in any wrongdoing. Kundra's decision could slow his plan to create a 'revolution' in the federal government's use of technology."

Comments

Change you can believe in

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this Change or Hope ?

Catching all the crooks

[Anonymous Coward]

Looks like Obama's plan for catching all the crooks is by appointing them to political office and let the approval process catch them.

Confused

[bonch]

I'm confused. I thought the government under Obama was going to be made of rainbows and kittens glued together with hope. Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other but also has a one-party supermajority Congress and a cheerleading media backing it? Sweet...what a change!

Re:Confused

[IonOtter]

Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other...

Not quite?

If it were, we wouldn't be finding out about this corruption until two years into their term, just like any other democrat. (Republicans don't get exposed until after they leave office, or piss off too many constituents.)

So yes, this IS a very big change from the way things used to be.

Re:Confused

[caladine]

Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other...

Not quite?

If it were, we wouldn't be finding out about this corruption until two years into their term, just like any other democrat. (Republicans don't get exposed until after they leave office, or piss off too many constituents.)

So yes, this IS a very big change from the way things used to be.

The only completely inexplicable "change" here is that people don't really seem to care about the obvious amount of corruption and just plain incompetence going around. How many of his cabinet picks inexplicably can't fill out their taxes properly? I don't know about you, but it doesn't give me any confidence when the treasury secretary can't even do his taxes right. This is the guy we're trusting to fix the banking mess?

While it's nice to see this stuff doesn't come out years after it happens (Oh wait, most of the tax problems were years old, and only corrected a short time before confirmations. Hell, Daschle knew about his tax problems early last year but didn't come clean until he was tapped for the cabinet.), but that doesn't give them the pass on screwing up that they're getting.

No matter the race, creed, or political party, they're dirty. The only change we're getting is how this crap is presented.

Re:Confused

[jlarocco]

If it were, we wouldn't be finding out about this corruption until two years into their term, just like any other democrat.

Actually, I think you're wrong. He's appointing people *SO* corrupt they can't even hide it until two years into their term. And that's with a majority in congress and a "cheerleading media". I cringe to think of what's actually getting through while everyone focus on these blatant cases.

Re:Confused

[moosesocks]

I don't know about you, but it doesn't give me any confidence when the treasury secretary can't even do his taxes right.

I hate to sound like a shill for Obama, but the focus of this whole ordeal did bother me somewhat for the simple reason that it actually did sound somewhat plausible that he was confused by the tax code.

Have you ever tried to do your own taxes....unassisted? The American tax code is an absolute nightmare at the present.

I'm not sure that a flat tax or the FairTax proposal are good options. However, this is a debate we need to be having at the forefront. Our financial system is being dramatically reshaped, and it's about time that we addressed our massively bloated tax code. Make it simple, and it'll be far easier to audit and enforce.

He's not accused of anything

[symbolset]

Sure, one of his direct reports ran ghost employees and kickback schemes for five years. But there is no evidence Kundra knew about it. Surely nobody expects the a state CIO to get involved in every petty detail.

Re:He's not accused of anything

[Anonymous Coward]

As a contractor/associate of other contractors in the past with DC govt, I can assure you he is an a-hole, corrupt, and lacks the intelligence and qualifications necessary for the position. In his defense, you can say this about pretty much anyone in DC govt.

I can only hope this helps bring him down. His own employees seem to loathe him. Ultimately, as the CIO he is supposed to take responsibility for his underlings. He may not have been guilty, but he is ultimately responsible for the office and everything that happens, particular at a high level like contracting.

Re:He's not accused of anything

[jlarocco]

He should not be Swift-Boated for the actions of others.

I have to disagree. If he's such a poor manager that he missed something like his direct report having "ghost employees" and taking kick backs then I don't think he's competent enough to be the federal CIO. Five years is a long time to not notice something was up.

If he's not corrupt then he's incompetent. Either way, he's not qualified.

Re:Oh well

[von_rick]

Deadly thing a bribe is, and burned will you be by it. Your cabinet position you will lose and charged for corruption you shall be. Your ally is the force, but abusing it will make the dark side grow stronger. Consume you, it will.

He's a politician from Chicago.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I thought the government under Obama was going to be made of rainbows and kittens glued together with hope. Are you telling me Obama's administration is as corrupt as any other but also has a one-party supermajority Congress and a cheerleading media backing it?

He's a successful politician from the Chicago machine, which makes Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall look like minor pranks on a boy scout campout. What did you expect?

*I* expect ongoing machine corruption scaled up to the national level, culminating in something to dwarf the Teapot Dome scandal and any corruption in any other administration since than (including the Clinton and both Bush administrations).

But then I've dealt with Chicago politics a little bit... (Thank Murphy I've never had to live there.)

Re:Richardson

[Toonol]

This may be modded redundant, because it gets said in nearly every political thread at Slashdot... but it is a very important point:

Democrats and Republicans ARE BOTH TERRIBLE.

Not based on ideology, really. You may find more to agree with in one party platform or another. But rest assured, the politician does NOT adhere to the party platform because of any actual conviction. When it is politically more profitable to betray it, they will. I'm 90% conservative, but would prefer an honest Democrat over a corrupt Republican. It's a moot point, though, because they're both rotten to the core.

There may be some exceptions. It would have been interesting to see if Ron Paul would have stuck to his guns. Those exceptions are few and far between, though, and tend to get weeded out long before they run for president.

Re:Oh well

[value_added]

I don't know whether you're overly fond of imperative constructs, you've been parsing the "will's" and "shalt's" of too many RFCs lately, reading Scripture has taken its toll, or you're just a Star Wars fan, but whatever the reason, hopefully, stop it you will.

Re:Richardson

[jcr]

As far as I can tell, there's only one real Republican (Ron Paul) and one real Democrat (Dennis Kucinich) left in the congress, and they both get ostracized by their parties.

-jcr