Doan's resignation not seen as hindering GSA's IT business

The abrupt resignation of the head of the General Services Administration on Tuesday should not adversely affect the agency's effort to reverse the trend of decreasing sales of information technology goods and services or its plans to restart a multibillion-dollar IT contract, procurement consultants said.

Comment on this article in The Forum.GSA Administrator Lurita A. Doan resigned at the request of the White House after months of attracting controversy for her strong-armed management style, including an accusation that she tried to award a no-bid contract to a friend in 2006 and that she improperly intervened to assist federal contactor Sun Microsystems in its negotiations with GSA.

Last year, the independent Office of Special Counsel ruled that Doan violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from using government resources for partisan politics, and recommended to President Bush that he fire Doan. During her two-year tenure as head of GSA, Doan also tried to curb the authority and independence of GSA's inspector general, Brian Miller.

Despite those controversies, multiple government sources, including Doan herself, indicated to Government Executive, Nextgov's sister publication, that her ouster was the result of the dispute with Miller, which deepened during the past several weeks after the inspector general was cleared in a pair of whistleblower probes.

GSA announced that Deputy Administrator David L. Bibb would serve as acting administrator. Bibb, a career GSA employee who joined the agency as a management intern in 1971, previously served as acting administrator from November 2005 until May 2006, when Doan took over. Having been with the agency for more than 36 years, Bibb has served in a range of management roles at GSA.

"If David Bibb is at the helm, they're in good shape," said a former GSA employee. "He's sterling in my book."

Doan's departure comes at a time when GSA faces major challenges as the government's supplier of goods and services, especially in the IT field. The collective sales on GSA's governmentwide IT contracts, such as Millennia, which offers IT services, hardware and software, have yet to return to the fiscal 2005 high of $3.8 billion. Sales fell to $2.5 billion in fiscal 2006 and then experienced some recovery in fiscal 2007 to $3.1 billion, according to the federal research and consulting firm INPUT. Conversely, governmentwide contracts operated by other agencies have experienced rapid growth during that same time, increasing 68 percent from $10.8 billion in fiscal 2005 to $18.2 billion in fiscal 2007.

Sales on GSA's IT schedules have remained mostly flat for the past four years, during a time when IT sales governmentwide have increased. This indicates that GSA has been losing business to other agencies, which are buying IT off other contracts or are electing to buy off in-house contracts.

In addition, GSA is in the midst of recompeting its Alliant contract, a $50 billion, 10-year governmentwide acquisition contract that federal agencies were slated to begin using in 2007 to buy an array of IT services. But a U.S. district court judge held up a protest and ruled in March that GSA made its Alliant awards in an "arbitrary and capricious" manner. GSA also has experienced a slow start for its 1-year-old, $68 billion Networx contracts, off of which agencies can buy telecommunications products and services.

"I don't think in the short term this really has much impact," said Kevin Plexico, executive vice president for INPUT. "I think GSA's challenges are bigger than the administrator, particularly in the Federal Acquisition Service."

Plexico said one of the main reasons agencies were turning away from GSA IT contracts was because larger agencies could maintain their own contracting staff and vehicles, allowing them to more closely control their own spending. He said another advantage for agencies conducting their own contracting was avoiding the fees that GSA charges for use of its vehicles.

"The smaller agencies are the most likely customers for GSA, the ones that don't have the resources to manage these types of vehicles themselves," Plexico said. "GSA has a steep hill to climb to convince larger agencies to use GSA over their own vehicles."

Another federal IT procurement consultant pointed out that Doan was not directly involved in agency decisions regarding IT contracts or other daily operations and when she tried to direct some contracts earlier in her term (such as guiding a contract to a close friend), she was chastised for overstepping her authority.

Most IT executives in and outside of government acknowledged, in the same breath, that Doan's tenure was marked by controversy and a belligerent management style, but they praised her accomplishments.

"Ms. Doan was certainly a controversial figure, but she was taking the agency in the right direction for bringing efficiency and innovation to government," said Phil Bond, president of the IT lobbying firm Information Technology Association of America. "Streamlining the Federal Acquisition Service and completing its consolidation was a key step in ensuring that public servants across government could quickly tap the best tools and solutions available in the private sector. She also cut through a lot of red tape that slowed down new entrants onto the GSA schedules and focused on improving the agency's record in efficiency and customer service."