GSA Procurement Services Face Overhaul GSA plans to reorganize its two key purchasing units, the Federal Supply Service and the Federal Technology Service. In a Jan. 28 memo to employees, Administrator Stephen Perry said he has appointed an FTS/FSS Reorganization Steering Team made up of high-ranking agency officials. He directed the group to come up with a reorganization plan by the end of July. Perry’s memo was obtained by Government Executive magazine. He wrote, “The objective is to strengthen the capability of GSA’s business lines to meet increasing customer requirements for excellent acquisition services, make it easier for industry contractors to interface with our acquisition processes, and enhance the efficiency of GSA’s administrative support functions by reorganizing and combining certain activities that are now performed in separate units.” The Federal Technology Service, which buys IT and telecommunications for other agencies, came under fire after the GSA inspector general found widespread violations of procurement laws and regulations in its regional offices. FTS Commissioner Sandra Bates has announced she will retire this month. The Federal Supply Service operates GSA schedules, which accounted for more than $32 billion in government purchases in fiscal 2004, 10 times as much as in 1992. The Government Accountability Office placed management of interagency contracting such as schedules and GWACs on its “high-risk” list last month. In addition, House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) has said a possible reorganization of GSA is one of his priorities for this year. Among the problems found by IG and GAO investigators were lack of competition for schedule orders; steering work to favored contractors; and the use of IT contracts to buy other services, such as construction and interrogation. GSA launched its “Get It Right” initiative in July in an effort to improve training and oversight of contracting personnel. The Defense Department has imposed new controls on its use of schedules and other vehicles operated by non-Defense agencies. In his memo, Administrator Perry said his Steering Team will establish Task Force Teams “to conduct more detailed reviews of the opportunities for combining the operation of functions.” He said the task forces will look at several areas: *The General Supply Fund and the Information Technology Fund; *Certain components of GSA’s financial management processes; *Certain components of GSA’s information technology processes; *FTS and FSS acquisition services for customers acquiring telecommunications and IT solutions, products and services, professional services and other products and services; and *Other functions to be determined. “This work is a critically important part of GSA’s ongoing effort to achieve high performance and continuous improvement in providing ‘best value’ acquisition services in order to continue being the provider of choice for our federal customers,” Perry wrote.