CSA TESTIFIES AT HOUSE GOVERNMENT REFORM HEARING: RECOMMENDS SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENTS TO GSA OPERATIONS

At a March 16 hearing of the House Government Reform Committee, Vic Avetissian of Northrop Grumman and Chairman of the Public Policy Council for the Contract Services Association (CSA) made significant recommendations to improve the operations of the General Services Administration (GSA) and its Schedules.  

Stressing that the “main objective in this undertaking should be based on what will allow Federal agencies to get the best value for the taxpayers – and what will best support our warfighters,” Avetissian suggested that “any review of GSA operations should not be about simply moving organizational boxes.” Instead, Avetissian listed a couple of steps that are crucial to GSA operating as a preferred provider for commercial services rather than a typical Government bureaucracy.First, GSA should conduct a “performance-based review” to determine what the customer agencies need and the business model(s) that will support it.  

Second, GSA should establish the business processes, business systems, policies, procedures, internal control and oversight that must be put in place to make the agreed upon business model(s) work

Regarding the use of Schedules, Avetissian highlighted several specific areas of concern:  
Are the services on the Schedule truly commercial in nature – as they are supposed to be? If they are not, then perhaps those services should be subjected to a separate contract vehicle involving specific capability requirements and technical proposal requirements. A case in point would be the use of the Schedules to contract for interrogators – not a standard commercial type of service.

 Some regional offices appear not to be “in sync” with overall GSA policies and guidance, especially as it relates to common practices in awarding and managing schedule contracts. These offices should be coordinated in headquarters – but they should not be abolished because they are the face of the Federal government in the regions of the country, and as such provide needed access to it for those “outside of the beltway.”   The bottom line in improving GSA Schedules, said Avetissian, is training, establishing best practices and improving transparency.  

A copy of the Mr. Avetissian’s statement can be found HERE.

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CSA is the nation’s oldest and largest association of service contractors representing over 200 companies that provide a wide array of services to Federal, state, and local governments. CSA members do over $40 billion in Government contracts and employ nearly 500,000 workers, with two-thirds of those employees being members of private sector employee unions. CSA members represent the diversity of the government services industry and include small businesses, 8(a)-certified companies, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned, HubZone, Native American owned firms and global multi-billion dollar corporations. CSA promotes Excellence in Contracting by offering significant professional development opportunities for government contractors and government employees, including the only program manager certification program for service contractors. For more information on CSA, go to: www.csa-dc.org.