- U.S. Finds Too Many KBR Reports 'Proprietary' - Federal court denies government's seal request - Navy puts moratorium on Web Patrice McDermott, Director OpenTheGovernment.org 202-332-OPEN (6736) www.openthegovernment.org - U.S. FINDS TOO MANY KBR REPORTS 'PROPRIETARY' http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701586.html By Griff Witte Saturday, October 28, 2006; D02 A Halliburton Co. subsidiary is abusing federal regulations by marking nearly all information it gives to the government about its operations in Iraq "proprietary," a practice that promotes unnecessary secrecy and could hurt competition, according to a report released yesterday by U.S. auditors. Under federal law, contractors are allowed to mark some documents proprietary, especially when they are bidding on a deal. But auditors for the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc. was using that stamp even with such basic records as daily head counts of how many people ate at the company's dining facilities. ... Auditors concluded that the company's actions represent "an abuse" of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, the set of rules for government contracts. [...] In a written response, Halliburton spokeswoman Cathy Mann said that using the proprietary stamp was "not only encouraged, but required" by the Army. [...] According to the report, Army officials are working on ways to get KBR to cut down on the practice. KBR and the Defense Department were both criticized last year after it came to light that the company had advised Pentagon officials to heavily redact a series of unfavorable audits before they were delivered to United Nations monitors. The Pentagon complied. [...] *** - FEDERAL COURT DENIES GOVERNMENT'S SEAL REQUEST Associated Press http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/politics/15856307.htm ATLANTA - A federal court in Atlanta has denied the government's motion for a protective order for unclassified files in the trial of two men charged with providing material support to terrorists. "The press and the public enjoy a qualified First Amendment right of access to criminal trial proceedings," U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled Thursday. While the government has the right to seal sensitive information when there's a compelling government interest, the court found that the proposed protective order would have covered all unclassified discovery material and thus essentially all filings in the case. [...] *** - NAVY PUTS MORATORIUM ON WEB http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42414-1.html?topic=technology-policy 10/26/06 -- 02:42 PM By Dawn S. Onley, The Navy has issued a moratorium on the creation of new Web sites and portals, and upgrading existing ones, in an effort to cut infrastructure costs, eliminate duplication and, ultimately, get the service in a better position for migration to the Defense Knowledge Online portal. The Navy currently has 85 portals and 3,700 publicly registered Web sites, according to Tina Donbeck, enterprise transformation section head in the Navy's CIO office. This doesn't account for the thousands more private Web sites maintained in the .com environment, Donbeck added. Effective immediately, the service can incur no new obligations without approval from the OPNAV N6. The N6 serves as the principal adviser to the chief of naval operations on network-centric issues. Existing portals will operate in maintenance mode until further notice, Donbeck said. "This effort will accelerate the deployment of a Navy central point of entry to authoritative data, core enterprise services and Web-centric applications that are vital in delivering information to the warfighter," according to NAVADMIN 275/06 guidance that went out on Oct. 4. [...] ***
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