GSA deal with Treasury not part of a trend

The agreement that the Treasury Department struck with the General Services Administration to cancel its Treasury Communications Enterprise procurement and use Networx instead is not likely to cause a wave of other agencies to ask for similar special arrangements, said John Johnson, assistant commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service.

The deal includes a 50 percent management fee reduction for Treasury, which has led many analysts to predict that other agencies will ask for the same sort of discount. Johnson, speaking publicly for the first time since the agreement was announced Dec. 20, 2006, said GSA isn't worried.

The discount applies only to services that pertain those Treasury would have used TCE for, Johnson said. Treasury also purchases services from FTS 2001, and those will not be subject to the discount when they are moved to Networx, he said.

For the services that are discounted, GSA will provide only limited management, he said. “Our support will be limited basically to scope determination and some education on how the program is constructed," he said.