On Monday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Martha Johnson to lead the General Services Administration. In anticipation of the big event — and in celebration of Friday – we bring you some fun facts about Pres. Barack Obama’s pick to lead GSA, as harvested from this lengthy questionnaire released prior to Johnson’s June 3 confirmation hearing. She was born in New Haven, Conn. In the summers of 1967 and 1968 she was a waitress at Sims Café in Dickinson, N.D. She taught English in Taiwan from 1974-1976 In 1992, she was…
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Update: The General Services Administration has posted the stimulus plan on its Recovery Act website. The 13-page plan can be accessed here. Original post: The General Services Administration just announced that it’s decided how it will spend the $5.5 billion in stimulus funds it received. Congress directed that $4.5 billion go toward converting federal buidlings to high-performance green facilities. Another $750 million is available for building and renovating federal buildings and courthouses, and $300 million must be directed to renovating and constructing land ports of entry. GSA said it’s selected projects based on the speed at which jobs can be…
At a teleconference today with reporters to discuss Friday’s Alliant contract award, General Services Administration officials sounded quite confident there would be no protests of the contract awards from disgruntled losers. “We feel confident that we’re on solid ground,” said Mary Powers-King, GSA’s director of governmentwide acquisition contracts (GWACs). It turns out, GSA has a good reason to be confident there won’t be a protest: no one lost. But GSA officials didn’t disclose that fact at today’s teleconference. Nor did it disclose that the pool of eligible vendors shrank from 62 to 59 due to mergers and acquisitions.
With the award of the General Services Administration’s Alliant contract behind him, the head of the agency’s Integrated Technology Services Office says now is the right time to bow out. ITS commissioner John Johnson will retire on May 2, completing a 33 year government career, the last nine of which were spent at GSA. As ITS commissioner, he oversaw GSA’s multibillion suite of IT contracts. In a teleconference with reporters today, Johnson said a future in the private sector is likely, but that he isn’t sure where. Johnson had announced his retirement to his staff via email earlier in the morning. Johnson…
The General Services Administration has chosen 59 of the 62 bidders for its $50 billion Alliant information technology contract, the agency announced today. This could be the start of another round of protests for the already protest-plagued procurement. This time last year, a federal court upheld the protest of eight bidders that claimed GSA didn’t properly evaluate their bids. All eight of those protesters were awarded contracts this time around, but it’s not clear if the losing bidders will seek to protest this latest decision. The awardees are: 1. Abacus Technology Corporation 2. Accenture National Security Services, LLC 3. Advanced…
The General Services Administration will finally re-award it’s multibillion dollar Alliant information technology contract tomorrow, the agency said. The announcement comes about one year after a federal court upheld a protest against a previous set of awards GSA made, forcing the agency to re-evaluate the procurement meant to become the government’s premier IT contract. Following the protest decision, Federal Times uncovered an apparent conflict of interest regarding the contractor GSA hired to collect performance information from the bidders. The GSA IG found other irregularities with GSA’s evaluation process. One has to wonder whether this round of awards will spark new rounds…
The government will cut the cost of managing its central Web portal, USA.gov, in half by adopting “cloud computing†for hosting, storage and disaster recovery services, the General Services Administration, which runs the site, announced today. Cloud computing is the use of Internet-based technologies to allow users to access programs and other information from Web browsers or virtual servers. Virtualization of hosting and storage will give GSA the flexibility to quickly add and change functions and allow the agency to readily respond to increased demand on USA.gov. GSA has hired Terremark Worldwide to power USA.gov virtually. By moving to a…
General Services Administration officials have confirmed that acting Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator Paul Prouty, is now the new acting chief of the entire agency. Prouty, a Public Building Service career official, replaced Jim Williams in the role of acting GSA administrator on Jan. 20, according to GSA. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the appointment. Williams has returned to his former job as commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service. He was nominated by former President Bush to run the agency last summer, but was never confirmed by the Senate. Williams had been running the agency on an acting basis ever since.
When President Bush leaves the White House on Jan. 20, he’ll have some comfortable digs to work out of in Dallas. The General Services Administration has secured 8,000 square feet of office space at Sherry Lane Place, a highrise office building in downtown Dallas, for the soon-to-be former presisdent, GSA said yesterday afternoon in a press release. The 10-year lease will cost taxpayers $311,600 annually — that’s $38.95 per square foot, more than twice the average Dallas office rent, according to this Bloomberg report. The size and cost of Bush’s new office space is in keeping with the space secured for…
A long-time career employee will run the government’s largest real estate provider, the General Services Administration announced Monday. Anthony Costa, the Public Buildings Service’s deputy commissioner and highest ranking career federal employee, took over on Sunday and will presumably serve as acting commissioner until the incoming Obama administration names its pick to lead PBS. As acting administrator, Costa will manage GSA’s building portfolio of 8,600 leased and owned federal facilities. He takes over from political appointee, David Winstead, who ran the service since Oct. 2005. Costa previously served as acting commissioner in the two months prior to Winstead’s 2005 appointment. Update:…