GSA Contracting Investigation Widens The General Services Administration’s inspector general is auditing the agency’s three largest regional offices in its investigation of misuse of funds in Federal Technology Service contracts. GSA Administrator Stephen Perry said the audits are under way in the Atlanta, Kansas City and San Francisco offices. The IG earlier reported that the FTS office in Bremerton, WA, had improperly used more than $37 million that was intended for technology purchases to pay for construction projects. (SAA, 10/3) Some of the violations involved the FAST contract, an 8(a) set-aside governmentwide acquisition contract. Testifying before the House Government Reform Committee Oct. 2, Perry said contracting officers in Bremerton had split some 8(a) contracts into smaller units to keep them below the $3 million ceiling on sole-source awards. He also described incidents of what he called “subcontract abuse,” when contracts were awarded to 8(a) firms and they subcontracted most of the work to a large business. Such pass-through “obviously is also inappropriate,” Perry said. The Bremerton office has been closed, and the employees are now working in the Auburn, WA, regional office, where they are under closer supervision, he added. Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-VA) questioned whether the FTS contracting officers might have been pushing for higher sales volume in order to qualify for bigger bonuses. Perry acknowledged that there could “potentially be a financial benefit” for officers to violate rules, but he said sales volume is only one of several factors in awarding employee bonuses: “We have made a deliberate effort to not have sales be the overriding factor in determining bonus awards.” Davis replied, “Coming from industry, I know that sales is number one.” Perry said GSA has taken steps to strengthen internal controls over contracting personnel, including additional legal reviews of all contracts over $5 million.