Shelton to Head GSA's Federal Acquisition Service

GSA #10168

June 22, 2005
Contact: Eleni Martin (202) 501-1231
eleni.martin@gsa.gov

Washington, D.C. – Stephen A. Perry, Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), today announced that, effective immediately, Barbara L. Shelton will serve as Acting Commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS).  Ms. Shelton will assume this role in the Office of the Administrator pending the establishment of the new Federal Acquisition Service organization in the near future.

As previously announced, the new FAS organization will result from the consolidation of GSA’s existing Federal Technology Service (FTS) and Federal Supply Service (FSS) organizations.  GSA released the draft organization design of FAS on June 2, 2005.  Since that time, GSA has continued to consider input from Federal agency acquisition and technology leaders, GSA associates and representatives from industry regarding the new organization’s design.  Ms. Shelton will have responsibility for leading the work remaining to complete the organization design and establishing the new FAS organization.  In addition, she will provide oversight for managing the day-to-day operations of the existing FTS and FSS organizations.
 
Administrator Perry said that naming the Acting Commissioner comes at a point in time that is critical to a smooth continuation of the progress being made to develop the detailed organization design of the FAS organization.

Perry added that, “Barbara has been a key leader of the team that has worked to develop the draft plan for the very challenging task of consolidating FTS and FSS into FAS.  Through her leadership and expertise, she has contributed significantly to the effort to develop an FAS organization which will meet the key objectives to:

• Improve GSA’s organizational capability to meet the increasing needs of our Federal customer needs for excellent acquisition services;
• Further career development of our acquisition work force;
• Enhance efficiency and effectiveness of acquisition activities and the supporting business processes of internal financial management and business systems;
• Ensure full compliance with laws, regulations and policies;
• Ensure consistency of operating procedures and practices among each component part of the organization; and
• Ensure accountability of the national and regional office leadership who have a role and responsibility for performance results.” 

Ms. Shelton has been Acting FTS Commissioner since February 11, 2005.  She was tapped for this position after 3 years as GSA Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator, where she managed the operations of FTS, FSS and Public Buildings Service (PBS) for the 7-state Region.  Prior to her service with GSA, Ms. Shelton served as Deputy Secretary for Administration in Pennsylvania’s Department of Labor & Industry, and as Deputy Secretary for Procurement in the state’s Department of General Services.  She also served as an Information Technology Consultant at Philip Morris in her private sector career.

Ms. Shelton said that, “I look forward to continuing my work with Administrator Perry, GSA’s management team, and our many talented associates.  We are focused on completing the design of the new FAS organization, and we are strongly committed to developing competent and engaged FAS professionals who deliver consistently positive and compliant acquisition experiences for our customers.”  

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 government-wide 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.