Information is a great value today. Though it always has been among the most important components of human life. This statement has become an axiom and that can be justified completely in our present days when progressive technologies win their positions day by day. How to use information properly? How to plan its management? Must it be considered as the kind of goods to be sold? In 1996 the solution of the above problems was discussed and resulted in the Clinger-Cohen Act.
The Clinger-Cohen Act or the Information Technology (IT) Management Reform Act brought in the new understanding of technology, its acquiring and use. The main hub of discussions within the frames of this act was proclaiming government information as a kind of information which must be managed like any other business. In other words all users of any sort of information must remember that this information is not just subject for everyone’s use but a real product which has its own price and is ruled by respective authorities. Information must be controlled and thus it can give profit. Information must not be used spontaneously. It’s to have its own “headquarters” in order to be used properly.
Any kind of system is connected with some other system. Within this connection preservation, control and correspondent use of information always take place. It’s an enormous number of informational currents which is of great value as information is the most important value among human and machine inter-activities. So, like the course of a vessel which takes on its board the goods and is being paid for these goods transit, the course of any information current also must be evaluated and payed in proper way. In other words, managing information is business but it’s not an ordinary business, it’s a primary business as any other kind of business is based on information. Information is required by anyone like a vital component. Therefore, that one who cathes this business first will have possibility to be a dominant unit. It’s like weapons or electricity which must be always be under government control. So, treating information as goods of the greatest value one has to undersdand that government must arrange strict control of information in order to prevent its impoper or harmful use. The CCA became the next step in information control –it proposed the reform of information technologies. It provided the new system of control of govermental investments into the IT. Due to release of the CCA new system of control of governmental investments was elaborated. In brief, they started to reveal to what extent the govermental investments in IT are effective.
Actually, the Clinger-Cohen Act (CCA) has become a result of combining of the two other acts: The Information Technology Management Reform Act of 1996 and the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA) which was adopted in 1996 as well. The authorozied represenative from the U.S.A William Clinger and senator William Cohen became the authors of CCA in 1996. The main value of this act is that the latter provokes a range of significant changes amd amendments regarding acquiring of information technologies by federal government. Information technoligies mean all kind of software, computers and auxiliary equipment, firmware and other similar issues. The IT have become a subject of control by such newly created department as Department of Defense (DoD) in which the Secretary of Network Defense got the status of Chief Information Officer. He was obliged to arrange proper control over DoD information technoligy acquiries.
In the Department of Defense, the Assistant Secretary of Networks Defense has got status of the DoD Chief Information Officer and si obliged to arrange management and control over all DoD information technologioes. National security systems occupy the most important place as the object of defense. Among the principle statements of CCA there were as follows:
– arrange the best possibe relation of cost and profit;
– to finf out the expected time of expiry of a technology;
– planning the IT investments
Speaking about the results and consequences of the CCA it must be said that ,first of all, 5% decrease in information managing cost has been reached. But if one can say that the main aim was reached? Surely it still didn’t. Managing information is a very long and rather difficult proceeding. The most efficient information management can be arranged by creating a wide network of governmental establishments dedicated to information storage and manipulation. That demands additional expenses and time but only in this way an efficient prolongation of the CCA can be possible.
Bibliography
1. Jaap Bloem, J. (2005). Making IT Governance Work in a Sarbanes-Oxley World. Wiley, 304p..
