GovernmentExecutive.com

The General Services Administration (GSA) last week awarded Virginia-based Maximus a $93 million contract to make "smart cards" for agency employees and contractors who access government facilities and computers.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will test the program in May 2004 at its Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama and if that effort is successful, NASA's David Saleeba said in a release, the agency plans to deploy more than 100,000 cards before the end of fiscal 2005.

Under the program, employees will be able to swipe their cards across readers to gain access to buildings and then insert the cards to access their computers. The cards will not contain biometric data, but a portion of them will remain clear so that biometric data can be added in the future if necessary, a GSA spokeswoman said.

COMMENTS

• More contracting out; more money down the drain. I have a common-access ("smart") card, gained in a test project to see how long it would take to get one. Since it took more than an hour, I am the only one in the office now and in the forseeable future to have one. (Not that this causes me any particular grief.) I just wonder why they stupidly thought it could be done in an hour or less, and "I'm-not-going-to-play" if it couldn't. I don't know if they just don't want to participate, or if they're having hissy fits because it would have a slight effect on their beloved statistics. (And they DO love them! Used to be our work product was audits - now it's statistics.) Anyway, I think I'll take mine and tour Washington. GovExec.com reader Posted January 22, 2004 11:20 AM
• This exists already for all military and civilian employees of DoD. Why is GSA awarding a new contract for the same thing? Is the GSA contract requiring that the new cards be identical in form and function as the DoD cards? Why isn't the central control of the government making sure this is the case? Another example of GSA waste. GovExec.com reader Posted January 22, 2004 6:51 AM