GSA releases final reorganization plan

The General Services Administration has released its final plan for combining the Federal Supply Service and Federal Technology Service into a single service to govern procurement.

GSA Administrator Stephen Perry said that the agency will create six "zonal" offices nationwide for the new Federal Acquisition Service (FAS). Personnel in those zones will serve customers, but reporting structures are being changed so that GSA headquarters will have more oversight.

The agency plans to maintain the existing 11 regional offices for the third branch of GSA, the Public Buildings Service, he added. That service is not involved in the consolidation of FSS and FTS.

“We wanted to make sure we have an organization that will enable us to be consistent, compliant and accountable," Perry said. "We want to move more and more toward being a strategic partner to our customer agencies so that we can work with them more actively.”

However, he said there is no specific timeline for making the planned changes. Some have already been accomplished, such as abolishing the commissioner positions for FSS and FTS and appointing Barbara Shelton to be acting FAS commissioner. GSA is awaiting congressional authorization for other steps, he said.

The agency has been trying to balance centralization to ensure compliance with contracting rules with decentralization to allow flexibility for field personnel, he said.