IG set to release final audit on FTS buying snafus

The General Services Administration's inspector general plans to release a nationwide audit this week that details its review of all Federal Technology Service customer service centers ? more than a year after administrator Stephen Perry requested it.

The IG has office has orally briefed Perry, FTS commissioner Sandra Bates and the service's regional office directors, said Eugene Waszily, assistant IG for auditing.

GSA officials this week will brief the House Government Reform and Senate Governmental Affairs committees about the report's findings and any corrective action they will take.

Waszily would not comment on the evaluation, saying he preferred to let the agency release the details of the report.

Bates said in an interview with GCN this fall that her office had not received any alerts that the IG had found problems that couldn't wait until the agency received the final report.

In August 2003, the IG issued an alert that two FTS regional offices has misused the IT Fund, spending money on nontechnology purchases beyond the scope of the fund,

Then, in January, the audit staff released a draft report that called the problems more widespread than first reported and involving violations of federal procurement law.

In response to the early findings, GSA launched the Get It Right campaign in July to assure that procurements were in line with agency and government buying rulings. The agency also began other efforts, such as expanding employee training and launching a legal review of the regional offices' procurement practices.