There’s an outfit called the General Services Administration (GSA) that’s been around since Harry Truman signed the legislation in 1949. It was organized to buy pencils and desks and ‘general services’ for the federal bureaucracy at the best possible price. Someone in the Congress thought that because the fed was a big buyer, it ought to get a good price.
And it worked pretty well. Until 1994, when Newt Gingrich’s Contract With America decided that the GSA’s contracting with vendors could be (and should be) a profit-center. Those were the heady days of privatizing government and making it smaller.
. . .
Things get fuzzy though in the privatizing business, when Bush appoints someone like GSA Administrator, Lurita Alexis Doan. Lurita is a political supporter with no prior experience that would even remotely qualify her to supervise 13,000 employees who look after $500 billion in government property.
What she does have is a BA in English, a Masters in Renaissance Literature, fund-raising expertise for Bush and enough moxie and political connections to build a 40 person firm that oversaw border protection with Canada and Mexico.
It seems she also has little patience with criticism.
(Washington Post) In February 2005, an auditor at the General Services Administration presented evidence to agency leaders that one of the government's top technology contractors was overcharging taxpayers.
GSA auditor James M. Corcoran reported that Sun Microsystems had billed the government millions more for computer software and technical support than it charged its commercial customers.
Not a few bucks more. The GSA, which was created by Harry Truman to take advantage of government’s enormous buying power—to save money—was paying millions more. On this and who knows how many other contracts?
much more . . .
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jim_free_070821_lurita_doan_2c_buying_.htm
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