New GSA Chief: "Some Fence-Mending To Do" The Senate has confirmed Virginia businesswoman Lurita Doan as head of the General Services Administration. President Bush’s nominee was confirmed by unanimous consent on May 26. Doan takes over an agency that is in the midst of a major reorganization, suffering from a slowdown in sales, and offering buyouts to several hundred employees. “As an entrepreneur, when I look at it, I say this is a turnaround,” she told the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at her confirmation hearing May 22. “There is nothing that can’t be fixed.” The slowdown in sales growth on GSA schedules is part of the fallout from the discovery of irregularities in several contracting offices. Former administrator Stephen Perry instituted new controls in his “Get It Right” campaign, but some industry executives say the initiative slowed procurements and drove some customers away from the schedules. “GSA has some fence-mending to do with some of its biggest and most important clients,” Doan said. “…I’m sure a good deal of groveling will be involved, and I’m prepared to do that.” She emphasized the need to establish metrics to measure the speed and effectiveness of GSA’s procurements and the satisfaction of its customers. “Go to these customers,” she said. “Service is the premier element of any success story in business and it’s no different with GSA.” Doan started her own information technology business in 1990. When she sold it last year, New Technology Management Inc. had more than $200 million in federal contracts, according to its website. In testimony at the confirmation hearing, she said, “Many of the transformational solutions that the government seeks are found in the small business community, and the GSA schedule is often the first government contract for these businesses.” She recalled “enormous difficulty getting on the GSA schedule” in her company’s early days. She said she will find out why it takes so long and how to speed it up. Committee Chair Susan Collins told Doan, “I think you bring exactly the skills and the determination that GSA needs.”