Bids flow to GSA auction Web site

The General Services Administration's online auction site opened its first auctions for bidding last month, making good on a top Federal Supply Service official's promise.

During a November interview with FCW, Ed O'Hare, chief information officer for FSS, said the GSAAuctions.gov site would conduct its first online sale in January. And it did. The Web site, which auctions the government's surplus personal property to the public, opened for bidding Jan. 17. The first sale would have been made in November, but a regulatory issue hung up the proceedings.

"Our customer realm is the public, so a privacy notice had to be posted in the Federal Register," O'Hare said.

The first Web-based auctions at GSAAuctions.gov include antique cars, jewelry, furniture and office equipment. In the past month, more than 10,300 users have registered on the site. Auctions will be held on a rolling basis, with new items being added continually. Bidding on some items will be open for as few as seven days, or as many as 21 days.

After the first two weeks of live actions, more than 7,700 bids have been placed on nearly 450 items, according to American Management Systems Inc. AMS, a business and information technology consulting firm, helped develop the site. Along with Ariba Inc., AMS worked with Computer Technology Associates Inc. to implement Ariba's Dynamic Trade solution to enable FSS to sell surplus government property via the site.

"The Federal Supply Service has a rich history of being on the cutting edge of technology, streamlining processes and doing more with less. GSA-Auctions.gov is an outgrowth of our culture," Donna Bennett, FSS commissioner, said in a release.