Interior fires senior leaders after fight over DOGE access to key payroll system

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.nextgov.com/people/2025/04/interior-fires-senior-leadership-after-fight-over-doge-access-key-payroll-system/404421/?oref=ng-homepage-river

The Interior Department has fired its top technology and cybersecurity leadership, in addition to others in the department’s shared services and solicitor’s offices, after they objected to giving the Department of Government Efficiency access to a key federal personnel and payroll system.

The agency’s chief information officer, Darren Ash; its chief information security officer, Stan Lowe; Associate Solicitor Tony Irish; and the human resources associate director for the Interior Business Center, Julie Bednar, have all been fired, according to two sources familiar. Both requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

At the same time, many other leaders in the department’s tech shop are taking the administration’s re-upped deferred resignation offer — including its chief data officer, Tod Dabolt, as well as its chief technology officer, Andrew Havely — meaning that most of the tech leadership positions at the department are now vacant, per two sources.

EXCERPT

[Smokin Joe]

The system connects with over forty government customers that use it, according to a 2024 privacy assessment, which itself notes the inherent privacy risks of FPPS, given the volume of sensitive data — like Social Security numbers — that it houses to calculate payroll.

Following the money...

[bilo]

Following the money...

We owe a huge debt to Elon Musk. He's recruited some of the top talent in the country to clean up this mess we call the federal govt.

[Free Vulcan]

These self-anointed, holy robed dingleberries just never learn the concept of chain of command and FAFO.

[Hoodat]

Good riddance to Darren Ash.  He was appointed CIO of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2013.  His first move was to move NRC data to a cloud.  He also implemented a Bring-Your-Own-Device policy where employees could access the cloud through their personal cellphones.  Bet the Chinese loved that.

NRC jumping into cloud, baby-stepping into mobile computing

Darren Ash, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's CIO, said the agency is reviewing vendor responses to a sources sought notice in preparation to move systems to the...

Jason Miller  |  June 5, 2013  |  12:42 pm


Here is an audit by the Inpector General's office published in 2017:  https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/2017-08/ML17171A136.pdf

What we found

NRC has not had a cohesive approach to cloud adoption. Federal and NRC guidance emphasize management’s role in providing objectives, resources, and oversight for IT projects.  However, until 2016, NRC management’s focus on the agency’s data centers substituted for an effective cloud strategy.  For example, NRC management committed to consolidating two older data centers into its new Three White Flint North data center.  The decision was made without completing a cloud alternatives study that would have not only defined a basis for determining which options best met NRC’s requirements, but also provided complete cost analysis of cloud and internal options.  The consolidation resulted in resources that are not scalable, rapidly provisioned,  or shared.  Further, it did not realize expected operating cost savings. Due to a lack of cost analysis in the beginning, it is not clear whether the project’s modernization benefits were worth the additional cost, or whether the same benefits could have been achieved at a lower cost while also enabling the adoption of effective cloud solutions.