General Services Administration
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Gsa logo.gif The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops governmentwide cost-minimizing policies, among other management tasks. Its stated mission is to "help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies."
GSA employs around 12,000 federal workers, and has an annual operating budget around $16 billion, of which approximately 1% is appropriated from tax-payer dollars. GSA oversees $66 billion of procurement annually and contributes to the management of about $500 billion in U.S. Federal property, mostly divided among 8,000 owned and leased buildings and a 130,000 vehicle motor pool. Among the real estate assets the GSA manages is the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, the largest U.S. Federal building after The Pentagon.
GSA's business lines include the Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) and the Public Buildings Service (PBS). Other divisions include the Office of Governmentwide Policy, and various Staff Offices, including the Office of Small Business Utilization, the Office of Citizen Services and Communications, and the Office of Civil Rights. It conducts its business activities through 11 offices (known as GSA Regions) throughout the United States, located in: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Ft. Worth, Kansas City, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle (Auburn), and Washington, D.C.
The National Archives and Records Administration was also part of the GSA, until it was made an independent agency in 1985.
The GSA is often accused of bureaucratic inefficiency and corruption. Currently GSA is considering early-outs and buy-outs for 400 associates, due to a severe decline in revenue and is in the midst of a reorganization which merges the FSS and FTS business lines into FAS. The GSA's Acting Administrator, David Bibb, manages the agency until a new administrator, a political appointee, is named. Bush Administration political appointee Stephen A. Perry resigned as GSA Administrator October 31, 2005.