Rise of GSA Centralization
In this era of increasing emphasis on government efficiency and rapidly evolving federal procurement processes, key contracting changes are currently in the works. Specifically, there is a focus on consolidating many agencies’ contracting shops and/or vehicles into GSA.
VoicedIQ investigated this topic to identify what specific steps various agencies have taken so far. Over the past months, the government has been vocal about its intent for GSA to eventually take over prominent GWACs, such as NITAAC and NASA SEWP V, and DHS has cancelled notable internal IDIQs of its own, including PACTS III and FirstSource II, in favor of utilizing GSA procurement avenues. For clarity, VoicedIQ communicated directly with GSA Procurement & Task Order Industry Liaison Maria Swaby, as she is involved with overseeing this process, regarding what agencies may have contracting absorbed by GSA. She informed us, “GSA is engaged in conversation with EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], HUD [Housing and Urban Development], Education, SBA [Small Business Administration], OPM [Office of Personnel Management] and NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission],” but ultimately, “GSA has agreements signed only with EPA, SBA and OPM to take over and do some (not all) of their procurements.” She highlighted that, though there is the desire, not all intended agencies have officially made the migration to GSA. Ms. Swaby provided us with additional commentary on some of these agencies by explaining, “It's a kind of nuanced combination of different things, right? With OPM, they had gotten rid of the OPM [procurement] staff,” continuing, “So there's no OPM contracting staff anymore, so it means that any kind of contracting at OPM, the people at GSA are doing it.” Whereas in the case of SBA, she stated, “I don't know that it's all GSA staff doing everything for SBA. I think there are contracts that make sense, and so it doesn't mean that GSA is going to take over everything in contracting from a particular agency, only the things that make sense for them to do under the programs that they are running. So, it's not a straight-out ‘everything is staff and everything is contracted.’ It's nuanced. We're trying to figure that out.” GSA’s feedback underscores that different agencies will likely turn contracting functions over to GSA in varying degrees, primarily as it pertains to “the civilian agencies for common goods and services,” but it is important to understand that they are “still trying to figure out the right FAS [Federal Acquisition Service] office on the GSA side” as GSA is “awaiting OMB [Office of Management and Budget] direction.” Thus, GSA’s focus is overall on agencies in the civilian sector at this juncture and less focused on Department of Defense organizations. Ms. Swaby provided VoicedIQ with a broader context of the number of agencies to be assessed, as “There are 83 CFO [Chief Financial Officers] Act agencies that could conceivably fall under the contract consolidation umbrella, but the ones I called out to you are the ones that anything has happened with,” reiterating, “The list I gave you shows the agencies that GSA has been engaging with and is furthest along with so far.” She further conveyed, “Once OMB has approved and given the required direction which we are still waiting on, the plan is to try to engage with all agencies.” This indicates the large number of agencies under consideration for centralization of contracting into GSA.
As the government continues refining its efficiency and practices, scenarios in which GSA becomes the procuring entity for other agencies’ contracts will only continue to increase. Reach out to learn how our directly sourced intel will help you navigate these situations with contracts you pursue!
Written by Jordan Everett