GSA will cut fees on schedule purchases.The General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) was established by section 101 of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C.A. § 751). The GSA sets policy for and manages government property and records. plans to cut fees on GSA (1) (Global mobile Suppliers Association, Sawbridgeworth, U.K., www.gsacom.com) A membership organization of suppliers of GSM products and services. Its goal is to promote GSM as the worldwide mobile communications standard. See GSM Association and GSM. schedule purchases to 0.75%, from the current 1%. but the change probably won't take effect for another year.A proposed rule will be published shortly, said Patricia Mead, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Deputy Assistant Commissioner (DAC) is a rank in the London Metropolitan Police Service between Assistant Commissioner and Commander. It is equivalent to Deputy Chief Constable in other British police forces and wears the same insignia: a pip above crossed tipstaves within a of GSA's Federal Supply Service. The Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), formerly the Bureau of the Budget, is an agency of the federal government that evaluates, formulates, and coordinates management procedures and program objectives within and among departments and agencies of the Executive Branch. asked for the reduction after a General Accounting Office study showed GSA is pocketing huge profits. GAO said revenue from the fees, known as industrial funding fees, exceeds the cost of operating the schedules by 53%. "Future adjustments certainly might be necessary" because revenues fluctuate from year to year, Mead said in an interview. "Industry has told us, 'Please don't do it too often.'" Changing the fees causes a major administrative headache for both GSA and its contractors. "We will try to make it more painless pain·less adj. Free from complication or pain: a painless operation. pain  less·ly adv. in
case we have to do it again," Mead said. The proposed rule will ask
for public comment on how to handle future adjustments and will probably
take effect in January 2004, she added.
Angela Styles, administrator of OMB's Office of Federal Procurement Policy, said GSA and other agencies that operate government-wide acquisition contracts "are required to adjust their fees so that total revenues do not exceed actual costs." GAO found that GSA reaped $151 million in profit from the fees over the past three years. Although the money is supposed to be returned to the Treasury, the investigators said GSA used the excess revenue to buy vehicles for the government's fleet and to maintain its stockpile stock·pile n. A supply stored for future use, usually carefully accrued and maintained. tr.v. stock·piled, stock·pil·ing, stock·piles To accumulate and maintain a supply of for future use. of supplies. "Program customers are, in effect, being overcharged for the contract services they are buying," GAO said. Other agencies that operate GWACs--the Departments of Transportation, Interior and Commerce, NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. and the National Institutes of Health--do not report their fee earnings to the Office of Management and Budget, the report said. |
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