GSA adds procurement officer to 18F tech group

The General Services Administration is adding a contracting officer from the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) to 18F, according to FCW.

Earlier this month, GSA consolidated 18F, as well as two other technology groups—the Office of Citizen Services and Innovative Technologies and the Presidential Innovation Fellows—into one group called the Technology Transformation Service, or TTS.

The goal of moving the contracting officer is to help innovators at TTS conduct procurements for agency customers, FCW reported. The contracting officer will serve as external procurement support, despite the fact that TTS has internal authority to purchase for itself, FAS commissioner Tom Sharpe was quoted as saying.

Sharp is hoping this move promotes cross-pollination of expertise. Just as the contracting officer will share knowledge of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, so too will TTS share knowledge of emerging discipline of agile IT procurement.

The plan is to start small with just one FAS employee, but in the future, the number of employees would be scaled according to demand, FCW reported.