Washington, DC – Citing the success of the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) "Get It Right" plan during testimony today before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Government Reform, GSA Administrator Stephen A. Perry said the agency's plan to reorganize GSA’s Federal Technology Service (FTS) and its Federal Supply Service (FSS) and combine the two Services’ operating funds will further improve performance.
The "Get It Right" plan was initiated in July 2004 to ensure the integrity of GSA’s contracting system and it has improved the federal acquisition process, thereby allowing agencies to obtain best value when acquiring products and services needed to accomplish their missions. Referencing ongoing agency efforts to improve agency performance for customers and the American people, Perry discussed the reorganization of two of its three Services.
"Organizations like GSA that desire to achieve high performance and continuous improvement should periodically review their operations and their organizational structures in order to identify and implement improvements where possible," said Perry. He also noted, "This initiative to reorganize and consolidate FTS and FSS is designed to strengthen GSA’s capability to meet increasing federal agency requirements for excellence in the acquisition of information technology, telecommunications, and other products and services; will make it easier for federal agencies and industry contractors to use GSA acquisition processes; and will enhance the efficiency of GSA’s administrative support functions by consolidating certain accounting and operational systems activities that are now performed separately in both FTS and FSS."
GSA is in the process of developing a detailed action plan to accomplish operational and structural changes necessary to combine FTS and FSS. A steering team and several task force teams of GSA managers and subject matter experts have begun their fact-based analysis to identify areas of opportunity and develop proposed changes and solutions. GSA will engage industry and agency customers as part of this process. The final reorganization and consolidation implementation plan will be completed by July 2005.
While the reorganization and consolidation of FTS and FSS takes place, momentum will not be allowed to slow on several other important GSA initiatives. These initiatives range from acquisition initiatives such as the agency’s "Get It Right" plan, which ensures proper use of GSA’s contracting vehicles, to citizen-oriented electronic government initiatives like FirstGov.gov which provides citizens with faster and easier public access to information and the Networx program, GSA’s forthcoming government-wide telecommunications acquisition.
GSA is a centralized, federal procurement, property management and policy agency, created by Congress to improve government efficiency and help federal agencies better serve the public. GSA acquires, on behalf of federal agencies, office space, equipment, telecommunications, information technology, supplies and services. It also plays a key role in developing and implementing governmentwide policies. GSA’s 13,000 associates provide services and solutions for the office operations of more than one million federal workers in more than 8,000 buildings the government owns and leases in 2,000 U.S. communities.