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.
In addition to the departure of the CTO and CDO, the principal deputy CIO June Hartley and deputy CIO for enterprise services Karen Matragrano are both leaving. Another deputy CIO, Ken Klinner, took the first deferred resignation offer, according to one of the sources.
Combined with the firing of the CIO and the CISO, that leaves only two roles within that office filled on a permanent basis: the chief of staff and deputy CIO for the resources management division.
The firings of the CIO and others come after weeks of back and forth with billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting DOGE over access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System, one of a few centralized systems in the government used to deliver paychecks to federal workers.
The firings of the CIO and others come after weeks of back and forth with billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting DOGE over access to the Federal Personnel and Payroll System, one of a few centralized systems in the government used to deliver paychecks to federal workers.
Granting the administrative access to the payroll system — as sought by Musk’s associates — to anyone apart from a few in HR is highly unusual, one source told Nextgov/FCW, as the system stores sensitive information about feds across the government. A single mistake could cause “massive issues,” they noted.
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.
Last week, Ash and Lowe were put on administrative leave and placed under investigation after DOGE obtained access to FPPS.
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