GSA's 'financial house in order,' Doan says

The General Services Administration’s schedules sales increased this year as the agency got a grasp on its finances, the agency said. GSA’s commercial schedules program showed growth of 2.2 percent, a high for the agency. Its Global Supply sales increased 5.5 percent, mainly because of Defense Department business, the agency said in a Nov. 14 press release. The news comes with an unqualified “clean” opinion on its fiscal 2007 Performance and Accountability Report. “GSA’s financial house is in order,” GSA Administrator Lurita Doan said. The report is important for GSA for several reasons, the agency said. It reflects the agency’s push to better manage its finances and emphasizes efforts to pay more attention to customer needs.GSA is working to earn back the business that agencies have taken elsewhere. It is also battling a boom in interagency and agencywide contracts. GSA officials say they see their initiatives beginning to pay big dividends. Kathleen Turco, GSA’s chief financial officer, said the clean opinion “means that our federal customers can trust that GSA has the financial integrity and appropriate controls in place to properly manage their funds.” GSA has struggled to regain customer confidence after a series of problems in recent years. Since 2006, GSA has worked closely with officials at DOD, GSA’s biggest customer, to win back the department’s business. Congress recently urged DOD to use GSA’s acquisition services because DOD’s acquisition employees are overloaded with work. The recommendation comes weeks after a DOD inspector general’s report stated that DOD wasted $607,000 by going to GSA to place 91 orders on an Air Force contract. Congress’ move reinforces GSA’s improved relationship with DOD, Doan said Nov. 13. “That was sort of icing on the cake,” she said. GSA’s assisted acquisition services’ business has drastically declined in recent years. The lost revenue forced officials to shift 250 employees from the division to other parts of GSA.