GSA Reorganization Approved, New Chief Chosen The General Services Administration received congressional approval to move ahead with its reorganization, as President Bush named a Virginia businesswoman to head the troubled agency. The House and Senate Appropriations committees approved GSA’s plan to merge its two big procurement arms, the Federal Supply Service and the Federal Technology Service, into a new Federal Acquisition Service that will manage GSA schedules and governmentwide acquisition contracts. The president said he will nominate Lurita Alexis Doan, founder of New Technology Management Inc. of Reston, VA, as GSA administrator. The post has been filled by Acting Administrator David Bibb since Stephen Perry left in October. If confirmed by the Senate, Doan faces a considerable challenge. GSA has been losing customers since it initiated new levels of review over its contract vehicles after its inspector general found irregularities in their operations. The agency announced earlier this year that it was moving to cut costs through a hiring freeze and elimination of as many as 400 jobs. Uncertainty about the reorganization has dragged down employee morale, according to published reports. Acting Administrator Bibb told employees he expects details of the reorganization and personnel assignments will be worked out by about June 1. There has already been heavy turnover in the top ranks of the procurement services. The reorganization cannot be completed until Congress approves the merger of GSA’s General Supply Fund and its Technology Fund. The House has passed the legislation, but the Senate has not acted. Doan founded New Technology Management in 1990 with a $5 investment: the cost of letterhead stationery and business cards, she told Set-Aside Alert in 2002. When she won her first contract, for the installation of servers at Navy facilities in Europe, she took her young daughter along and set up a playpen in the computer rooms. By the time she sold the company last July, it had more than $200 million in government contracts, according to its website. As an 8(a) firm, NTMI won a number of border-security contracts from the Customs Service and its successor, the Department of Homeland Security. She estimated she was one of fewer than a dozen African American women who headed a technology company.