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GCN Home > 06/19/06 issue

Doan starts tenure at GSA with splash

Hiring DHS’ Williams to head FAS is first of many changes on horizon

By Thomas R. Temin and Rob Thormeyer, GCN Staff

Lurita Doan promised one thing in her first public address since taking the reins at the General Services Administration last month—change.

Her first big one was bringing in Jim Williams, the program manager for one of the government’s highest-profile, politically toughest challenges—the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology project at the Homeland Security Department.

Williams will head up the Federal Acquisition Service.

In making the move, Williams leaves a DHS organization of 115 people to lead one of 4,000. The Federal Acquisition Service is a relatively new piece of GSA, formed by combining the Federal Technology and Federal Supply services. The combined services resell more than $35 billion worth of goods and services each year via numerous contracting programs.

Doan said she will work quickly and undertake several other initiatives to improve not only how the agency interacts with its federal customers but with industry as well.

“I know GSA has its challenges ... but I believe that if you don’t just dive right in, you’ll never get anything started,” Doan told the standing-room only audience at a Coalition for Government Procurement conference this month.

In particular, Doan said she will shorten to 30 days the time it takes for a business to get on a GSA schedule and asked that CGP members provide suggestions on this issue within a month.

“We at GSA are going to retool our abilities to respond to national emergencies, and you can expect some real innovative ideas on this,” she said. “You can actually expect them in the next few days.”

In bringing in Williams, who replaces acting FAS commissioner G. Martin Wagner, Doan is hiring a career official practiced at lifting up tough programs. Williams was deputy associate commissioner of the IRS, where he was program manager in the tax agency’s Business Systems Modernization Of- fice. Before that he was the IRS’ procurement director.

More news on related topics: Acquisition / Contracts, Business Process Management, Management, IT Management



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