Denise Roth, the nominee to become GSA administrator, has said she plans to continue and expand several initiatives if confirmed, including to “introduce new technologies into the government, change the way we utilize the federal workspace, and modernize acquisitions.”
At her confirmation hearing, deputy administrator Roth–acting head of the agency since March–said that agencies have been developing their own solutions in acquisition “either because they feel their requirements are so unique that existing solutions cannot meet them, or because they are not aware of good solutions that may currently exist.”
“Under new initiatives such as Category Management, the federal government will identify core categories of spending, and develop specialized levels of expertise, share best practices, provide streamlined solutions, and manage supply and demand for each of the categories. The objective is to increase efficiency and effectiveness while reducing costs and redundancies,” she said.
“I also have heard questions from partner agencies about the pricing of GSA’s acquisition vehicles. That is why it is one of my priorities that the agency is focused on transforming its 60- year old, Multiple Awards Schedule program, to meet the current needs of federal agencies. We are looking to provide government buyers with more competitive prices by reducing price variability across MAS contracts. We are doing this by looking at the current prices of identical products offered by suppliers through the MAS program to identify outlier pricing, and then working with MAS contractors to reduce the range of prices offered to government buyers,” she said.
Other priorities include providing greater price transparency by requiring vendors to report the price the federal government paid for an item or service; selling off unneeded real estate; and opening data to entrepreneurs through Data.gov.
