GSA to Partner with GAO in Latest Centers of Excellence Partnership

The General Services Administration announced Tuesday it will partner with the Government Accountability Office to assist Congress’ investigatory arm in launching its nascent technology innovation lab.

The partnership—the seventh under GSA’s Centers of Excellence initiative—will provide GAO access to GSA’s technology professionals, best practices and experience in prior federal efforts as it looks to build out a tech lab that could improve the way it audits the government.

Specifically, GSA will assist GAO in developing cloud-based infrastructure, services and tools, as well as advance development of a “flexible, scalable and secure computational environment,” according to a statement. The goal is to boost GAO’s capabilities as the chief auditor of the federal government. Its innovation lab will be part of new tech assessment office that will hone in on how the government uses emerging technologies.  

“Today’s announcement illustrates the momentum of the CoE to deliver outcomes that drive mission effectiveness,” Technology Transformation Service Director Anil Cheriyan said in a statement. “Putting innovation at the core of everything we do, we’re excited to engage with GAO and provide guidance along their exciting journey.”

GSA’s CoE effort kicked off in early 2018, managed by TTS. It has partnered with the Agriculture, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development departments, the Office of Personnel Management, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Department of Defense’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Previous CoE efforts have focused on improving cloud computing adoption, artificial intelligence, call center support, customer experience, data analytics and infrastructure optimization.

“With this latest CoE engagement, we look forward to building upon our prior work transforming federal IT to improve services to citizens,” said CoE Executive Director Bob De Luca. “Leveraging the CoE modernization approach will help GAO further its mission of helping the government save money and work more efficiently.”