In his first move as federal CIO, Kundra and White House New Media Director Phillips launched the IT Dashboard. A highly interactive site, the IT Dashboard shows the amount of investment the government has made in technology for each agency. It graphs the amount spent, and shows when a project is near completion as well as those projects that still have "significant concerns."

Tech Initiatives

During Kundra's time as the CTO of D.C., he led initiatives meant to increase the availability of government information to the public while decreasing the cost of providing it. In 2008, he offered prize money to any developer who could create applications that would ease citizen access to such government information as crime reports or pothole repair schedules. Kundra expected maybe 10 entries, but got 47 applications in 30 days. All in all, Kundra spent $50,000 for prize money and estimates that he saved over $2.5 million by not having to hire a contractor to do similar work.

"I don't want to buy technology the old way," said Kundra. "Three years ago, D.C. schools spent $25 million to deploy a human resources software program. It failed, and not a single person was fired. And they had the audacity to ask for more money. How is that an intelligent use of taxpayer money?"

This is why Kundra backs many so-called "cloud" computing initiatives. Cloud computing uses hundreds of thousands of computers to store information online instead of dedicated and expensive physical servers. While Kundra worked for the District, he converted the entire office to Google documents for spreadsheets, word processing and email. Instead of spending millions for servers and $50-a-person per month for document software, Kundra got the cloud and the ability to create documents for free by using Google. Then he sprung for extra security and new labels on the program, which cost the District a paltry $50-an-employee per year.

Subcontractor Investigation

In summer 2008, Kundra found an outside company to hire subcontractors for the District. By doing this, he hoped it would free District employees from paperwork, get expert subcontractors on the job faster and limit interaction between subcontractors and city managers, which had created relationships described as "rampant cronyism" by city employees and consultants to The Washington Post. The new system would be more transparent and efficient in distributing $75 million-a-year in technology contracts, according to Kundra. "The best disinfectant is more sunshine," Kundra told the D.C. City Council.

Kundra left his D.C. post in February 2009 to join the Obama administration. Less than a month later, the FBI raided Kundra's former offices. Federal authorities said former technology-security director Yusuf Acar, and the owner of a subcontracting company, Sushil Bansal, attempted to steal money through the creation of "ghost employees" and product invoices that were never delivered. The two men, with the help of a former technology employee working in the finance office, allegedly defrauded the District of $500,000, according to the affidavit.

The U.S. attorney's office said Kundra was not a suspect or under investigation.

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