GSA’s Red Ink May Mean Pink Slips GSA has acknowledged that some of its procurement units are losing money in the face of declining sales. The agency has imposed a hiring freeze and plans to offer buyouts and early retirement to as many as 400 employees. Agency executives declined to rule out layoffs. In a statement, GSA said it “is addressing business realities in some parts of the agency, including IT Solutions, that require immediate attention. The bottom-line goal is to bring costs in line with revenues.” GSA procurement units are self-supporting, relying on fees charged to their federal customers. The agency said the hiring freeze was imposed in January in the Federal Technology Service and the Federal Supply Service. Those units, which include the GSA schedules, are slated to merge into the new Federal Acquisition Service as part of the agency’s reorganization. Revenue for FTS’s Regional IT Services organization fell by 50% in the first quarter of fiscal 2006, Government Executive magazine reported. FTS’s IT Solutions and Professional Services units are also losing money, the magazine said. IT equipment sales through GSA’s Schedule 70 fell in 2005 after years of double-digit growth, according to the market research firm Input. (SAA, 2/24) The drop in revenue traces to revelations of procurement abuses in FTS in 2003. As a result, GSA launched the “Get It Right” campaign to assure compliance with laws and regulations. Some contractors said “Get It Right” added new layers of review that bogged down procurements through GSA vehicles and drove some government buyers away. In addition, GSA moved last year to stop agencies from “parking” leftover money in its IT Fund. Millions of dollars were returned to agencies, most notably the Defense Department, and the money could not be spent because it was part of a previous year’s appropriation. Government Executive said GSA also acknowledged losses in the Global Supply service, which stockpiles commodity items for sale to other agencies. As part of its reorganization, GSA proposes combining its IT Fund and General Supply Fund. The House approved the reorganization last year, but the Senate has not. GSA has also gone through turnover in its management ranks. Administrator Gerald Perry, the heads of FTS and FSS, and the acting commissioner of the new Federal Acquisition Service all resigned in recent months. David Bibb currently heads the agency as acting administrator.