Nominee: GSA Must “Earn Our Customers” President Obama’s choice to head the General Services Administration is awaiting a Senate vote after the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee recommended confirmation. Committee chairman Joe Lieberman, I-CT, called Martha Johnson “a wise choice.” Johnson served as GSA’s chief of staff during the Clinton administration. Most recently she was vice president of culture at Computer Sciences Corp. At Johnson’s confirmation hearing June 3, several senators said she must work to restore customer confidence. “Some agencies have lost confidence [in GSA] and have begun to negotiate their own contracts that duplicate the purpose of GSA,” Lieberman said. The committee’s ranking Republican, Susan Collins of Maine, said the proliferation of multiple award task order contracts “may lead to additional costs for the taxpayer.” Johnson said she believes rapid turnover in GSA leadership has contributed to management problems. If confirmed, she would be the fifth administrator in 14 months. But she said an overburdened acquisition workforce is also hampering GSA. Since the acquisition reforms of the 1990s, she pointed out, GSA is no longer the government’s “company store.” She added, “We would like to earn our customers through performance rather than by mandate.” But Johnson offered no specific solutions. “I haven’t been able yet to get under the hood and kick the tires and so on,” she testified. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO, urged Johnson to reinstate post-award audits of GSA contractors. “I believe you would see measureable taxpayer savings just with the announcement that we’re going back to post-award audits,” she said. McCaskill said her subcommittee on contracting oversight will look into the growth of multiple award task order contracts. “It’s not cheaper,” she declared. “We have completely decentralized purchasing to the point that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”