Office of Personnel Management Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour has announced she will retire from the agency, just two days before she was scheduled to appear at a hearing before a House Committee. The hearing has since been cancelled after word of Seymour’s retirement was released.
Seymour oversaw the computer networks when it was announced that two massive data breaches hit the agency’s computer systems which left the personal data of millions of current and former federal workers vulnerable.
OPM director Katherine Archuleta resigned in the wake of the data breaches, and pressure has been mounting on Seymour for her to step down. Most notably, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) has called more than once for Seymour to be fired from the agency. (See Chaffetz Still Wants OPM to Fire Its Chief Information Officer)
Upon hearing of Seymour’s departure, Chaffetz said in a statement, “While I am disappointed Ms. Seymour will no longer appear before our committee this week to answer to the American people, her retirement is necessary and long overdue. On her watch, whether through negligence or incompetence, millions of Americans lost their privacy and personal data.”
OPM’s Inspector General Patrick McFarland had also questioned the practices of Seymour and her office in a letter sent last summer to acting OPM director Beth Cobert. In the letter, McFarland said he had to question whether or not OPM’s IT office was “acting in good faith.”
OPM has not yet announced a replacement for Seymour.
