Vivek Kundra is told to stop work just days after accepting the job
Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, 14 Mar 2009
Just days after his appointment, the US chief information officer Vivek Kundra has been told to take leave, after the FBI swooped on his former employer, according to reports.
An employee of the District of Columbia’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer, and a private contractor were charged with corruption after an FBI raid.
Yusuf Acar, 40, acting chief security officer at the CTO’s office was charged with bribery of a public official, money laundering, wire fraud and conflict of interest, according to a report on Washington’s WTOP news site.
Sushil Bansal, president and CEO of Advanced Integrated Technologies Corporation and a former government employee, is said to face the same charges.
Acar worked under CIO Kundra at the Columbia CTO’s office but it is not thought that the latter is implicated in any wrongdoing.
The news will nevertheless be a setback to the Obama administration, which has yet to appoint a chief technology officer to work alongside Kundra.
At the time of Kundra’s appointment on March 5, President Obama said he would play a key role in the “secure, open and efficient” running of the US government.
“I have directed him to work to ensure that we are using the spirit of American innovation and the power of technology to improve performance and lower the cost of government operations,” he added.
Kundra is on leave until further details of the case become known, a White House source told The Associated Press.
Related Article:
Chief Information Officer Is Quietly Reinstated
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