General Services Administration, Administrator

Department/Agency: General Services Administration

Position:

Executive Schedule: Executive Level III - Presidential Appointment with Senate Confirmation

Major Responsibilities:

Manage government workspace, buildings, motor vehicles and other property
Furnish government offices and provide supplies, telecommunications, information technology and related services
Manage more than one-fourth of all federal procurements
Promote e-government and pursue productivity-enhancing innovations
Play a lead role in ensuring smooth presidential transitions

Key Competencies and Preferred Qualifications:

High-level manager in public or private sector
Familiarity with federal contracting and procurement

Insight:

When Barack Obama won the presidential election on Nov. 4, 2008, the General Services Administration (GSA) had 120,000 square feet of office space in downtown Washington furnished and ready the next morning for a transition staff of up to 500, from phones and computers to fax machines and felt-tip pens. Helping presidents-elect make the transition to the White House is one of the many jobs that falls to the GSA, the government's landlord and chief acquisition officer. As then-GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan described her agency's reach in a preface to its 2007-2012 Strategic Plan, "We're a car rental agency, real property asset manager, construction company, childcare center operator, office supply store, travel agency, nationwide telecommunications provider, charge card agent, financial services provider, training institution, computer hardware and software dealer, citizen call center, policy think tank, and more."

The GSA also was rocked by scandal and embarrassment for the White House during the Bush administration.

David Safavian, former chief of staff at the GSA and then the Senate-confirmed administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy in OMB, was convicted in December 2008 on charges of obstructing an inspector general's investigation into a 2002 golf trip to Scotland paid for by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and of lying to the FBI and a GSA ethics officer investigating the influence-peddling scandal. Safavian originally was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to 18 months in prison, but an appeals court vacated that verdict and ordered a new trial. He was awaiting sentence in the new year.

In an unrelated scandal, Doan, a former business owner and descendant of slaves whom President Bush nominated in April 2006 to be the first woman to run the GSA, was forced to resign after a controversial two-year stint in which she was accused of violating the Hatch Act that restricts political activity by government employees, of interfering in a major IT contract renegotiation, and of giving a no-bid, $20,000 contract to a friend who had once been her public relations woman. The Bush administration left the GSA in the hands of acting administrators for its final 21 months in office. Now it will be the Obama administration's turn to reinvigorate and reform an agency that is the government's landlord and a principal purchasing arm.

The GSA owns, leases and manages the millions of square feet of office space from which federal departments and agencies operate, and it provides the furniture, computers, telephones and other equipment that civil servants rely on. Established on July 1, 1949, when President Harry Truman signed the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act, it is an independent executive branch management agency with headquarters in Washington and regional offices in 11 major cities. Its stated mission is to "help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies."

With a staff of 12,320, GSA manages federal assets valued at nearly $75 billion including more than 8,600 government-owned or leased buildings, a fleet of 208,000 vehicles, and technology programs and products ranging from laptops to some of the most sophisticated computers in the world. It awards $69 billion in contracts each year. Its budget of nearly $21 billion includes $7 billion spent on services, $4.7 billion on rent, $3 billion on supplies, and $1.7 billion on land and structures. Congress also gave it $8.5 million for the current transition: $5.3 million for the incoming administration and $2.2 million for the outgoing administration's expenses, plus $1 million to help provide orientation for new presidential appointees, as provided by the Presidential Transition Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-293).

Lurita Doan pledged to run GSA like a business when she took the oath of office in May 2006. She came to government after selling in 2005 the company that she built over 15 years, New Technology Management Inc., into a vendor doing $200 million in business with the government, including supplying surveillance equipment for border security. Doan soon found herself at odds with the GSA inspector general and under investigation by Congress for alleged improprieties. There was an allegation that in 2007 Doan approved a $20,000, no-bid procurement order for a firm run by a friend who had served as Doan's public relations consultant in the private sector. Doan said she terminated the order after she became aware that it did not comply with contracting rules.

The Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency that protects federal whistleblowers and investigates violations of the Hatch Act, concluded Doan crossed the line at a January 2007 briefing for GSA political appointees by a senior White House political aide when she asked how they could "help our candidates." She later told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chaired by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) at a contentious 2007 hearing that she did not remember saying that. Waxman accused her of politicizing the agency and called for her resignation. She held onto her post for another year, before telling reporters that the White House had forced her to resign. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino would say only that Doan had "tendered her resignation and it was accepted."

Doan also clashed with GSA Inspector General Brian Miller, especially over the inspector general's investigation of whether the IG had intimidated a GSA contract officer in Sun Microsystems's efforts to win renewal of a major contract for IT services. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) charged that when Doan came in she pushed her underlings to accept terms "extremely unfavorable to the government." Sun eventually gave up its bid to keep the GSA business. Grassley also accused Doan of trying to encroach on the inspector general's independence. Doan maintained she'd done nothing wrong.

After Doan was fired, President Bush nominated Jim Williams to be the new GSA administrator. The nomination cleared the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, but Grassley blocked the nomination because he questioned whether Williams, as head of the Federal Acquisition Service, had played a role in Doan's efforts to prod GSA contracting officers to renew the Sun contract. Bush designated Williams as acting GSA administrator in August 2008.

Soon after Doan took the reins at GSA, Congress passed the GSA Modernization Act that required major changes at the beleaguered agency. That legislation, which President Bush signed on Oct. 6, 2006, was the result of oversight hearings spanning six years that highlighted weaknesses at the agency. It established a new Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and replaced two separate buying organizations - the General Supply Fund and the Information Technology Fund -- with the Acquisition Service Fund. When that legislation first passed the House in 2005, its principal author, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), then-chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said it "offers fundamental organizational change within GSA by removing the old structures that inhibit efficient federal purchases. We can help bring GSA in line with the current commercial market that has evolved from stand-alone hardware or services to solutions that are a mix of products, services and technology. While the bifurcated system may have made sense two decades ago when IT investments were a relatively new phenomenon, technologies such as laptop computers, cell phones, and email are now as ubiquitous as desks and phones."

Large management challenges remain at GSA. The agency faces a backlog of nearly $7 billion in repairs needed on federal buildings, and also had 258 buildings and nearly 14 million square feet of excess office space on its hands, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO has been sharply critical of GSA's leasing practices, which the GAO contends have cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

Key Relationships – Within the Government:

Commissioner, Federal Acquisition Service, General Services Administration (GSA)
Chairman, Civilian Board of Contracts and Appeals, GSA
Associate Director for Administration and Government Performance, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), The White House|
Administrator, Office of Federal Procurement Policy, OMB
Administrator, Office of E-Government & Information Technology, OMB
Administrator, Office of Federal Financial Management, OMB
Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council
Chief Information Officers Council
Chief Acquisition Officers Council
Director, Defense Procurement, U.S. Department of Defense
Associate Administrator for Procurement, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Council of Chief Financial Officers
Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Under Secretary for Management, DHS
Director, Federal Protective Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, DHS
Director, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce
Division Chief, Computer Security Division, NIST, Commerce
Chief Operating Officer, Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Administrator, National Archives and Records Administration

Key Relationships – Outside the Government:

National Association of State CIOs (NASCIO)
Building Owners Management Association
International Facility Management Association
National Travel Forum

Nomination Referred to:

Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

Current Position Profile:

1. Martha N. Johnson (Confirmed: Feb 4, 2010). Former Team Leader, General Services Administration Team, President-Elect Obama Transition Team. Former Vice President, SRA International, Inc. Former Chief of Staff, United States General Services Administration.

Recent Position Profiles:

2. James A. Williams, M.B.A. (Acting August 2008 - 2009). Former commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service. Former official of Department of Homeland Security and Internal Revenue Service. Directed procurement at IRS.

3. David Bibb, M.S. (Acting May 2008-August 2008). Career GSA employee. Former deputy administrator.

4. Lurita Alexis Doan, M.A. (2006-2008). Former president, CEO and founder of New Technology Management Inc.

5. Stephen A. Perry, M.A. (2001-2005). Senior vice president of Timken Co. Director of Ohio Department of Administrative Services.