GAO to report on GSA
November 4th, 2009 | Congress General Services Administration Procurement | Posted by Elise Castelli
The Government Accountability Office will report on the General Services Administration’s management of its supply schedules in the spring,said John Needham, a director of acquisition and sourcing management for the watchdog agency.
The report will look at whether GSA’s reorganization improved management of the Multiple Award Schedules program and the effectiveness of the management tools GSA has in place, he said. Mismanagement of the schedules program led to a series of contracting scandals five years ago. The scandals prompted GAO to add interagency contracts to its High Risk List.
In addition, the report will address concerns raised by the congressionally charted Acquisition Advisory Panel in a 2007 report, Needham said. The panel found that agencies weren’t competing orders placed through established interagency, multiple awards contracts. In addition, the panel raised concerns that there were too many interagency contracts competing with each other and hampering the government’s abilities to get a good price.
Needham spoke at the Coalition for Government Procurement’s fall conference today.
Former White House official sentenced in lobbying case
October 16th, 2009 | General Services Administration White House | Posted by Tim Kauffman
Former White House official David Safavian was sentenced to a year in prison today for obstructing justice and lying to investigators about his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
This was the second conviction for David Safavian, who served as chief of staff at the General Services Administration under President George W. Bush. His 2006 conviction was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 2008. He was tried again and convicted in December.
The case stemmed from allegations that Safavian lied to GSA ethics officials when he had asked for advice on whether he could accept a 2002 golf trip to Scotland from Abramoff. Safavian did not disclose that Abramoff had business dealings with the agency.
Safavian later oversaw federal contracting policy at the Office of Management and Budget but abruptly quit before his 2005 arrest.
According to the Associated Press, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said Safavian won’t have to report to jail until after his pregnant wife delivers their child.
Tags: David Safavian, jack abramoff
Martha Johnson, GSA Administrator in waiting, still waiting
October 14th, 2009 | Congress General Services Administration Uncategorized | Posted by Elise Castelli
Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., continues to hold up the vote on Martha Johnson’s nomination to lead the General Services Administration. Bond placed a hold on her confirmation this summer to squeeze the agency for information about why it wasn’t closing down the federally owned Bannister Complex outside Kansas City, Mo. and relocating staff to leased space downtown, as previously planned.
GSA’s new Public Building Service commissioner, Robert Peck, responded to Bond, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., in a letter last week.
In the Oct. 9 letter, Peck explained that plans to close Bannister are still on the table, but GSA has changed its approach to obtaining new space. GSA is scrapping the proposal submitted to Congress last year to replace Bannister with a “lease-construction” project, where a private developer builds space to the government’s specifications and then leases it to the government. GSA has turned away from this plan because further research shows it will be cheaper in the long-term for GSA to build and own a new federal building downtown.
Peck wrote:
Neither leasing space, nor a lease-construction project is our preferred option. Fiscal analyses show that building and owning a federal building is the lowest long-term cost solution. Kansas City also has sufficient federal agencies in leased space to support incurring additional federal ownership of space. Accordingly, we are prepared to begin site selection and design for a new federal building in Kansas City’s central employment area as soon as we can secure the requisite congressional approvals and funding.
Peck also noted that before entering a lease-construction agreement, the agency first must hold a competition to see if suitable space is already available. Because Kansas City has many office building vacancies, a lease-construction project would likely turn into a lease, Peck said.
Despite these assurances, it appears Bond is not satisfied. According to today’s Kansas City Star, he has not lifted the hold on Johnson’s nomination. Bond’s spokeswoman Shana Marchio told the Star “we need answers on the how and when this project will move forward,” adding that “without those answers, we cannot know how to evaluate the message from GSA.”
Tags: Martha Johnson, Sen. Kit Bond
The incredible shrinking government
September 21st, 2009 | Defense Facilities General Services Administration | Posted by Tim Kauffman
The federal government may be growing under President Barack Obama, but a just-released report shows the government is actually getting smaller.
Confused?
It turns out that while federal agencies are hiring more workers, they’re also getting rid of thousands of buildings they no longer need. The number of buildings in the federal inventory declined nearly 9 percent in 2008, or roughly 70 million square feet, according to a report posted today by the General Services Administration.
GSA attributes the decrease to a reduction of 36,000 military housing units and 4,000 warehouses by the Air Force and Navy.
Tags: buildings, real property
GSA merges Chief Acquisition and Governmentwide Policy Offices
August 11th, 2009 | General Services Administration | Posted by Elise Castelli
The General Services Administration is consolidating its Office of Governmentwide Policy and Office of the Chief Acquisition Officer, the agency will announce later today. The move comes one day after the agency appointed Michael Robertson to lead both offices.
Since the two offices share a common mission of developing procurement policies, merging them will better coordinate these efforts, improving the agency’s ability to manage taxpayer dollars, GSA said in a statement to Federal Times.
FedFleet: By the numbers
July 27th, 2009 | General Services Administration | Posted by Tim Kauffman
FedFleet, the year’s biggest conference for federal fleet managers, officially begins tomorrow in Chicago (although lots of folks are there already, attending agency-sponsored meetings and getting ready for tonight’s welcome reception at Chicago’s Navy Pier).
I’m flying out this afternoon from Washington, but before I do I thought I’d share a few interesting facts that come directly from Becky Rhodes, deputy associate administrator of govermentwide policy at the General Services Administration, which is hosting the conference:
- 1,490 people were registered to attend the conference as of July 17, which is up slightly from the 1,449 people who attended last year’s event.
- 38 percent of attendees are new to FedFleet, which Rhodes attributed to significant employee turnover at agencies.
- 164 exhibitors will showcase their goods or services, up from 145 last year.
- 22 agency meetings will be taking place during the conference, up from 16 last year.
- While most of the conference is devoted to vehicle fleets, 25 hours of training are devoted to aviation fleet managers.
Happy Birthday GSA!
July 1st, 2009 | General Services Administration | Posted by Elise Castelli
The General Services Administration turns 60 years old today. And from this birthday news release, it sounds like the agency has no plans to retire.
“After six decades we’re just hitting our prime,” Acting Administrator Paul Prouty said in the statement.
With billions in Recovery Act dollars flowing out of agencies today, GSA stands ready to “help green the government, move America toward energy independence, increased transparency and accountability and much, much more,” he said.
To celebrate the agency established by President Harry Truman in 1949 to centralize the procurement of goods, services and office space for the federal government, FedLine gives you the following fun facts about GSA:
- GSA has 11,792 full time employees.
- GSA handles 11 percent of the government’s procurement spending.
- GSA manages 8,600 government-owned and leased buildings and more than 425 historic properties.
- It also manages 213,000 government vehicles.
Multiple Award Schedule Panel finalizes report
June 26th, 2009 | General Services Administration Procurement | Posted by Elise Castelli
The incoming General Services Administration chief should no longer require vendors to give the government their best prices, according to an advisory panel. Instead, GSA should insist that agency customers buying products and services worth at least $100,000 from GSA’s federal supply schedules program obtain at least three bids from vendors before making a purchase.
These and other recommendations are outlined in a report finalized by the Multiple Award Schedule Advisory Panel today. The 15-member panel was formed last year by former GSA Administrator Lurita Doan to suggest ways to improve the federal supply schedules program, also known as the multiple-award schedules program. The panel is made up of industry officials, procurement experts and agency officials.Â
The panel said requiring vendors to offer the government their best prices was of “questionable” value. That’s because agencies using the supply schedules can obtain deeper discounts through negotiations and competition.
The panel also recommended that GSA:
- Develop a market research tool to capture and share the prices buyers obtained for their orders. The tool will help other buyers determine if the prices they’re quoted are fair and reasonable.
- Regularly review pricing on federal supply schedule contracts to ensure they reflect market changes.
- Require firm-fixed pricing for orders that combine products and services, known as solutions.
- Periodically consult with agencies and industry to ensure federal supply schedule offerings are relevant to customer needs.
- Determine if the length of a GSA schedule contract should be shorter than the current 20-year maximum.
Martha Johnson, President Barack Obama’s choice to lead GSA, said at her confirmation hearing this month that she would consider recommendations made by the panel.
Tags: MAS Panel
Leading the (green) way
June 17th, 2009 | Agriculture Defense Energy Environmental Protection Agency General Services Administration HHS Postal Service Transportation Treasury | Posted by Tim Kauffman
Federal agencies having a tough time meeting the plethora of green government mandates should take a close look at the 15 federal teams who have been recognized this year for spearheading environmentally sustainable practices at their agencies.
Winners of the 2009 White House Closing the Circle Awards — handed out Wednesday during the middle of the three-day 2009 Federal Environmental Symposium East in Bethesda, Md. –Â Â are demonstrating best practices in areas such as recycling, green purchasing and fuel conservation.
The big winner was the Air Force, which received four awards for initiatives under way at local bases and headquarters. The Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Denver was the biggest individual winner, taking home two awards.
A complete list of the winners — along with some of their accomplishments — is after the jump.
Tags: environment, green government
More new cars on the way
June 9th, 2009 | Fleet Management General Services Administration | Posted by Tim Kauffman
Federal agencies will be trading in more of their gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient cars soon.
The General Services Administration announced today that it ordered 14,105 vehicles from the big three automakers, using $210 million in stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
That’s on top of the 3,100 hybrid vehicles GSA purchased in April for $77 million. Another order for $15 million in advanced technology buses and electric vehicles will be made by Sept. 30, GSAÂ said.
The new vehicles will replace older models that are less fuel efficient. Of the total vehicles purchased so far, 7,924 are Fords, 6,348 are from General Motors and 2,933 are Chrysler vehicles.