GSA reorganization could lead to new fee structure

As the General Services Administration undergoes its dramatic reorganization, the agency is also contemplating changing how it sets its fees for doing business, according to a key official.

On Wednesday, Barbara Shelton, acting commissioner of GSA's newly formed Federal Acquisition Service, said the agency's chief financial officer is performing a review of the agency's fee system. Although she could not provide details, the results could lead to changes in the fee structure.

"The CFO has to figure out what those costs are" if the agency alters its fee system "and what fees need to be changed," Shelton said after her speech at the Coalition for Government Procurement's annual fall conference in Arlington, Va.

Fees reflect the different business models and lines within FAS and GSA. The CFO study will find a way to make the fee structure more "rational," she said.

The study is a component of GSA's larger reorganization effort, which included the creation of FAS from a merger of the Federal Technology and Federal Supply services and the melding of the correlating General Supply and IT funds into a single "One Fund" for government procurement needs.

Reorganizing GSA will result in a better focus on customer agencies and stronger relationship with industry, Shelton said, adding that having one fund for all goods and services will make government acquisition easier. "We need to make sure that the acquisition from cradle to the grave is excellent," Shelton said.

Shelton said that under current plans, 90 percent of the FAS workforce will be in place by September 2006.

Another aspect of the reorganization is the development of the Integrated Technology Solutions, a shop within FAS headed by Deidre Lee.

Lee said at the conference that she is restructuring her workforce to make the office more responsive to customer needs. She is considering forming a research team that focuses on identifying new technologies as they develop and are out on the market so they can be added to the GSA schedule portfolio.

This research team, she said, could determine whether new schedules or governmentwide acquisition contracts are needed because of the deployment of Homeland Security Presidential Directive-12, a new security plan that standardizes security identification standards for government workers and contractors.

"We need to get ready for more business in a much faster manner," she said.